Did you guys need a few minutes? >> Uh, one more minute, please. >> Sure. Yeah, all set. Thank you. >> Stand by in five, four, three, two, one. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the April 6, 2026 select board regular
meeting. Uh, and we also have a joint meeting with the finance committee. I will start off with my script. Uh this is select board chair Josh Lavine. I will be confirming that all members and persons anticipated the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please
respond in the affirmative. Dan Workovo >> here. >> Benith Mamothy >> here. >> Andrew Lamb >> here. >> Shelley Manor Dwolf >> here. >> Staff, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Lynn Simmons >> here. >> Mike Barbieri here. Peggy Sheldon >> here. This open meeting of the Long
Select Board is convened in person and via Zoom webinar as posted on the agenda and town's website identifying how the public may join. There's no chat or Q&A function. All the materials for this meeting are available on the agenda post on long memma.gov. The public is encouraged to follow along
using the posted agenda unless I note otherwise. This meeting will feature resident comment. For residents attending the meeting in person, please raise your hand when we get to the comment section of the meeting and I will call on you to approach the microphone. For residents participating in the meeting via Zoom webinar format,
please use the raise hand icon at the bottom of the screen. The meeting moderator will promote you to panelist, unmute you, and give you permission to speak. If you join the webinar by phone, dial star9 to raise your hand and star six to mute unmute. Residents who wish to speak will identify their names and addresses only. Each individual is
afforded three minutes for comments. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference. Please remember to mute your phone or computer when you are not speaking. If anyone in attendance is recording this meeting, please announce yourself now.
Seeing none. >> Uh before we do the pledge of allegiance, would you like to open the finance committee meeting? >> Um I like to open the finance committee um meeting. Erica, chair. If members could
just say their name into the thing. Present. >> Custom. Mory Garrett, >> Martin Bole, >> Cara Stevens, >> Tim Mitchell. >> We have a qu. >> Great. Thank you. We'll move on to the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Well, I'll start with select board announcements. Long meadow Earth Day Cleanup. The Earth Day Cleanup event
sponsored by the Energy and Sustainability Committee and Recycling Commission will be held on Saturday, April 18th from 10:00 to 2. For additional information and to sign up to volunteer, please visit long memma.gov/earthday. Free paper shredding event. A free paper shredding event will be held on
Saturday, April 25th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Long Meadow High School parking lot. More information on the event can be found at long metal ma.gov. Town meeting warrant info session. A warrant info session for the May 12th annual town meeting will be held on Monday, April 27th from 6:30 to
8:00 p.m. the Long Meadow Adult Center multi-purpose room. This event will be organized as a drop-in style information session where residents and voters can stop at various tables around the room to discuss and ask questions about specific warrant articles. The April 27th select board meeting will be
cancelled and the next regular scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, May 4th, 2026. All right, moving on to resident comments. Anyone like to speak? I'm Shay 81 Green Meadow Drive. Quick
item. Citizens were never told that property taxes would subsidize municipal fiber. You should check Mass General Law, Chapter 44, Section 17. Bands can be renewed in part up to 5 years from the date of original issuance. To borrow for the full allowed maturity afterward,
amortization of bands must start at the beginning of year three and then be turned out to the statutory debt limit. you did not model principal payments in the third and subsequent years prior to the 20-year refinancing in both 2030 and 2032, you likely need to change your
model. What is a monthly fee to fiberring? It should be separate line item. Why isn't disclosed? Why are we niggging on the 491,000 being paid back to the general fund upon the first issuance of fiber? Four of you voted for it in November 2024. The general fund
sure needs that money for capital expenditures. As you know, modeling in debt in less than 90 days, you had three different borrowing amounts, material differences between the bond amounts and allocations, one and maybe two illegal debt proposals, then introduction of
property tax increase. All are cause for concern. January 5th, 30 million, 20-year maturity, 30-year amortization. I told you the debt structure was not allowed under a well-known Mass General law on debt maturities. That blew up the
model and you guys confirmed it on March 23rd. March 23rd, 27 million, no model publicly available to support the Warren article. April 6, we're here today. 8.6 million to borrow and partially paid by property taxes.
Property tax subsidy, 144 million of interest on the 8.6 million. 1.2 two million to adjust the model to comply with the Mass General law I just quoted. 2.6 million adjusted property tax subsidy paid by every household even it not hooked up for 3 to 5 years or even
subscribed. Note the shortfall in the projections that does not cover debt service on the general obligation bonds will be covered statutoily by increased property taxes. financial engineering interestonly bans for four years on two
refundings pushing principle out too far in technology investments. I expect the town now has fully modeled fiber springs information, verified all costs. As an example, how much cushion is in the estimate in capital costs? And how are
you ensuring 27 million of capital equipment for 10,000? That's comparable to four cars. Likely S&P downgrade. S&P already says Log Meadow has too much debt compared to its similarly rated peers. Adding 26 million of speculative
standalone debt will invariably lead to a downgrade. In conclusion, I'm very concerned that you should be and you should be with radically different modles, debt amounts, and illegal funding proposals that were all made in the last 90 days. The property tax subsidy of fiber was never planned or
disclosed. >> Time's up. Finish your thought. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Alex Mitrescue, 68 Delton Street. Uh first of all I just wanted to say thank you for taking this initiative. I think it's important to look for alternatives for uh citizens to
figure out ways to have alternative method to internet u services. I think competition drives prices down. So I I really appreciate the effort uh that the select board and some of you have taken. Um I think also the the way that you've structured this with 8.6 million being
sort of interest only initially. I think it's a very clever and and a very a sort of an easier way to impact uh town residents. Um I think looking at the model that you posted on on the document, there's really three main assumptions. You have a 40 40% adoption
rate. You have $90 uh of the cost and then a borrowing rate of 40%. 4%. Uh, I guess my biggest concern is what happens if Comcast keeps prices low and and offers $50, $60, uh, internet fees and then we don't have
that adoption rate. I think that's the biggest risk. Um, and I'll talk a little bit more about some of these assump assumptions that I did. Um, um, I looked at the the the material posted and shows that 40% adoption comes in only at 2031. So, I think it'll be
helpful to explain the timeline when the um the fiber will be available to folks. Um, another concern is what if Starlink or another provider who doesn't need cable becomes a lot more affordable and now we're we're stuck with $26 million
worth of a project that is obsolete. Um, I'm looking at sort of the documents. This looks like it's going to be not paid off until 201. So, it's going to be part of the debt service of town. So, um I do want to hit this point on the debt
service. I think the select board has a policy the debt service should be around 12%. I think with the middle school we are at 16% right now and so with this added on will probably be over 16 to maybe 17 or 18%. So that sort of
violates the select board policy. Uh my concern is also if if things don't work out as well with uh the provider and uh folks sort of switch back to Comcast. Um I'm looking at I'm just going through my
notes here. I know I have 30 more seconds. Uh I wanted to offer two alternatives to this. One is whether we allow a private company to try to install fiber as a way so that we don't burden tax residents. Let's see if that way we can have this alternative. Second
one is to maybe have residents sign up for this service in advance. That would be a very easy referendum whether this service is needed and easier easier to get to the to the subscription. I do wanted to kind of some of the the modeling that I did. If we do get to 40%
take rate but 5% borrowing rate, that adds 1.4 million to the project. But if we get 30% Yeah, if we get 30% subscription and 5% borrowing rate, that adds 5 million to the project. So, I think those two are very highly
sensitive points. Um, maybe just a couple of questions. We need to finalize the total cost, the installation cost. I saw manager compensation of 50 $50,000. Maybe that needs to be clarified. Who's going to manage this? uh and then if the
the Excel file that's been posted if that can be the document if it can be posted for residents to play around with the assumptions be helpful. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh anybody else in person? >> Good evening. My name is Mike Kirby, 81
Lawnwood Avenue. Um I will try and be brief. Of course, you make it brief anyway with only three minutes. In any case, I'm uh here tonight because I have a lot of unanswered questions about uh what's been going on with the with the attempt for the uh this this new
broadband proposal and um the expenses related to it. I'm asking that uh the board reconsider this. I know some of the considerations here and it's probably too late. the horse may be already out of the barn, but uh I think article 7 should be withdrawn uh from
this coming town meeting simply because there is no hard information in regards to what the tax levy is going to be on the individual homeowners in this town. Uh we're already taking a serious hit with uh the new middle school project
and um to add an add- additional multi-million dollar project uh onto our tax uh bills being forced to pay this is I I it's unwarranted at this particular time. Um there are other communities
that have been uh dealing with this same issue over the years. I uh bring your attention to uh granted it's a different state, different community, Chesterfield, New Hampshire, which uh issued a uh 20-year bond of $1.8 million
with u and Consolidated Communications is a public private partnership. Uh Consolidated Communications guaranteed that fund as well as investing an additional $2.5 million for their broadband connectivity. This occurred
approximately eight years ago. Um and uh again they're are thinking out of the box on this. There's no uh commitment to the taxpayers in regards to this. Uh there's other information available on the web if you want to look into Chesterfield, New Hampshire. Uh to our
neighbors of the north in Colra, uh they issued a town bond for 2.4 million and then also received a $1.3 million broadband uh Massachusetts broadband institute uh grant. There's been no information that I have seen that uh the
town has tried to look for any other kinds of funding for this on the outside. So this is public uh public private partnerships that have instituted uh broadband uh in other communities and I just think that um
this is something that although you folks have put a lot of work into it um it's not it's too expensive for us at this particular point in time. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else in person?
>> Do we have anybody online? >> Hands up. >> Okay. U moving on to kudos and plits. We have none today, which is fine. uh with the packed agenda. I'm sure somebody out there did something good, but uh we'll we'll catch
it at the next meeting. Uh any select board comments before we move on to uh our joint meeting? >> Go ahead. >> Um uh thank you all for coming by and making comments. Um uh Mr. Matresky, I think you asked a lot of good questions and um if if it's all right, I'll send
you an email tomorrow um and just respond to some of that. Um and then uh Mr. Kirby, um you asked about uh the tax levy estimate. Um I think Ian's actually put that together. Um and so that's something that uh we'll be sharing um you know publicly. So uh that'll be coming um you know out publicly about
how much the tax levy will be each year uh through this uh borrowing. Um the New Hampshire example um you know we're familiar with some of these other states and uh if we were New Hampshire I would not be proposing this project. Um there's a lot of differences between uh New Hampshire and Massachusetts and the amount of uh control that certain
utilities have in Massachusetts that make this type of um partnership a public public partnership um you know much uh much better um option here as opposed to in other states. Um so you know I think there's some very key differences between the New Hampshire example and here. Um and then in terms
of grants we have um looked through grant um funding opportunities talked to MBI but unfortunately uh because of um the connectivity that we have through Comcast as well as the um average um
median household income. We just unfortunately not um we did not uh we weren't eligible for those grants but we did look at them exhaustively. Obviously that would be uh you know a game changer and and that was something that we really looked into. I just want to let you know.
>> Okay. Um anybody else? And I I I would just say in general I know maybe more people watching because of uh this issue is uh something a lot of people in town are talking about which is great. Um and we got some emails today asking the
select board to not move forward with the project. This is not a select board project. This is the town is voting on. It's a town project. Um so I I I know that probably the folks here um are may understand that. I I suspect many do. Um
but I just want to clarify that, you know, this is for better or worse. This is our town government. Uh everyone can vote. Everyone who's a registered voter can go vote on this. Um it's it's great to hear questions. I I appreciate the dialogue when people ask good questions.
Um sometimes it makes us look at something differently, but at the end of the day, it's not us voting. It's on everyone. Uh and that's why that's our people want to change the charter, they can, but for now, uh everyone votes. So, um I I know that a lot of people know
that, but I just want to to make sure that we get that out there. Um okay, anybody else? Great. Uh all right, moving on to the joint meeting with the finance committee which we've already opened. So uh let us move
on to the draft warrant. >> Sure. So we need to start it um article one. >> Yep. >> Just go right through. Uh we can do this uh two different ways. I guess you can deal with all the financial ones first
if you'd like or um just go through one by one. >> I think a lot of the early non-financial ones should go pretty quickly. Are you okay if we just go straight through? >> Just right. >> We just hold if we need to stop or we're
all good at that. >> All right. Go ahead. >> Okay. Article one uh standing one that we have every year the um William Gwe uh fund appointment of the three members. >> Keep going or do you want to vote now on them?
>> Oh yes. Right. Um do we have a motion to accept article one onto the warrant? >> So move second. >> Any further? All those in favor? >> Unanimous. Thank you.
Okay. Uh two is our first financial one here. This is a um transfer from free cash into the DPW snow and ice account. Everyone is aware that we had more snow and ice than we've had in several years. The town budgets the minimum um amount
of 125 annually. This is also a fairly standard article to transfer funds in at the end of the winter season. The DPW needs an additional $450,000 to have that line balance. >> Um, so I have a question on this. We
don't have Sean here. Uh, my wife told me before we left that we are it may snow tonight, believe it or not, less than an inch. Is that how much would it cost the town if that's what we needed? If we needed to do some sort of clearing tonight,
>> I don't have that dollar amount. U, but I do know that they have enough of a cushion built into this. It's not that rare for us to get some precipitation in April and they do they did take that into account. >> Okay, great. So the number that Sean gave us at the last meeting, you said 450 was pretty good. Yes, that included
that. >> Yep. >> Okay, that's great. >> Uh any >> and he is here virtually if we need it. >> Okay. Uh anything from finance on this? >> Any questions? >> No. >> Who's moving?
Um, I will move to accept article two. >> Second. >> Uh, anything further? All those in favor. >> Close article two. >> You'll do that later in the agenda. >> The warrant. >> I'm closing. >> You have to close it tonight. >> Saying accept. Okay. Like
>> Oh, no. It's move on to the warrant. >> I think we said the wrong term, right? Yeah. We're moving on to the warrant. >> We know what you mean. But yeah, it doesn't matter. should be act. >> And if I'm understanding this, finance is going to recess and vote on your Okay great.
Okay. Uh, article three is to transfer funds from free cash to the Revolution 250 task force to cover um expenses related to their 250th anniversary planning events. The amount is $12,000.
>> Uh, Andrew, do you have anything else on this? Yeah, I think this is going to be a great uh opportunity for our town to celebrate some local events and things related to our 250th anniversary. The a little update the there was we were thinking about putting an event on July 4th, but actually we're going to move it
to mid June because we thought that the attendance would be better with um with the school year around the end of the school year, but a lot of uh things we put into a time capsule will be school related and contributed by school um students. So, we thought that that would be better. And there will also be in the
fall uh planting of a liberty tree as well. So, those are the two main events that we're considering. We thought that this article was a modest amount of money for something that would really bring the community together. So, I hope we'll get a lot of support for it. >> And do the school are the schools aware
that uh they have an opportunity to contribute to the >> So, actually, we're not going to. It all depends on getting this article passed. So, we haven't really done too much to promote it until we get this, but everything is being lined up. I know that Lyn Mary Beth Burgerson is kind of spearheading the time capsule part of
it, and she has the list of possible contributions that we can request from the community. Uh, it's an extensive list, so it should be a really great time if we can do this. >> Okay, great. Anything from finance on the $12,000? >> All right, I will move to accept article
three. Second. >> Any further? All those in favor? >> Okay. Article 4 is also a transfer from free cash into the operating budget of the DPW to two different lines. One is for DPW fence repairs and another is for
playground inspection and maintenance. These are both items that should be in the general operating budget for DPW. We've just not been able to um have that happen and balance the budget. And uh for finance committee, this is these amounts were
we cut these down a bit to have a a small OPED contribution, right? >> Correct. >> So you needed more than that? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> For these and you're giving it to OPED instead. >> We're giving a a small amount to OPED. >> Okay. But to do these two repairs, you
actually need more than $20,000. >> I think we there would be a lot of money that could go towards this. Okay. So why not put the OPED money against it? >> Uh well >> because we thought that contributing to
OPED was a valuable and worthwhile thing as well. Basically >> I and we have discussed your philosophy which I I certainly appreciate. Um but we are trying to also honor our commitments to OPED with a a token amount. I would love to give
more. I'd love to have more for both but um that's that's why we're doing it. and we we looked at a number of places to take some money to use for OPED and uh thought that this was a good spot for it. >> Um, and I only speak for myself on this
because others on the finance committee might not agree with this, but I do know that we just spent a huge amount of money redoing the playgrounds and to a large degree because we hadn't been able to maintain them when we had them in play. So, I'm going to suggest if we think we're shorting oursel on
maintenance, putting money into OPED is not helping us long term. So, that's just my comment on that one. The truth is $50,000 in OPED is such a small drop. If we actually stuck with the select board policy, which we violated time and again, it would be
like $650,000. To be honest, there's an inordinate amount of money that could be beneficial to put into fences or any number of things for capital. the capital uh plan that we were hoping for, we we had to cut to balance the budget as well. So
$50,000 for OPED is a very token amount that redistributing five or $10,000 to other things that are other articles in here. it's frankly not going to make that much of an impact on those particular
items because those items even if we put those5 or $10,000 back into them, it's still going to be less than less than would be ideal to be frank. So, we felt that, you know, it's important to make a gesture. I mean, the opposite could be
argued that we're just so negligent in our funding of OPE. Uh we thought that this was a small gesture that would be worth making. >> Um other comments from the finance committee on I just we're so negligent in our financing of deferred maintenance
think far greater than our funding of OPED. So it it's yes it's a drop in the bucket. So but my question is if $50,000 of playground maintenance keeps the playground alive and well for another two years longer than it would have been I would suggest playgrounds are really expensive. we discovered recently. You
guys remember that funding? It was not cheap. >> No, I I don't I think that and correct me if I'm wrong, Lyn, but the the playgrounds have a have a shelf life anyway. I don't think it was necessarily that we weren't maintaining them. Um
they I know at least we also had ADA issues. >> Um but have we found that maintenance deferred maintenance has been an issue with the playgrounds? >> The three new ones? No. Um obviously uh the biggest issue is uh uh annual
inspection. There's a certified playground inspector that is actually a title of of position that not a position but a a certificate that someone holds. Uh and we need to have someone inspect them annually and we have not been doing that.
>> Just to be clear, it wasn't $50,000 taken out of the fences or $50,000 out of one thing. It was like Lynn had suggestions and I think she took five or 10 out of various things so that nothing was ever shorted completely. And the other thing I might add about OPED that
I feel is very valuable is we've had an incredible investment return on OPED. Like we have a $10 million in OPED but our cost basis there we only put in like 5 million. So it's been growing and that's to our benefit and that's to the benefit of our future liability and if
we ever needed that money we could draw from it. So even $50,000 is a drop in the bucket. I think it says in the Warren article the unfunded liability is 20 million. So it's all about it's all about how we obviously all the points
are valid and I think that it's all about how we decide to you know distribute our scarce resources essentially. I have a question. >> Um, uh, has the select board ever
failed to fund OPAP in any dollar amount um, on any warrant cycle? >> Yes. >> No, I think we this would I don't think we've ever put in nothing. Is that >> That's my my question is has there ever been nothing?
>> Oh, at annual I thought we've always had it come in at special with free cash. We've we've attempted to put something in the budget. It has not met the policy goal. Uh and then we've supplemented additionally at fall town meeting.
>> Oh, it's a supplement. So, it's never been zero. >> In terms of zero, I'd have to look back over the last, you know, however long you've had it. I don't know off the top of my head. >> My second question is um when was the
last time we got audited? uh not not an involuntary audit. The last time we were at we we had an audit done of our OPED of the sufficiency of our OPED funding. I I remember it being done but I don't remember how long ago that was.
>> So my to that question um we are required to have an audit done for our OPED every two years. The last one was done uh this year >> and what we've been my understanding is that our audits have come back satisfactory.
That's correct. >> Um, that's it. >> More your first that two great questions, but I as your first one, I don't want to be the first select board
that said zero. Um, it's a bad that would set a bad precedent, I think. And we are really, as D Andrew said, we are really doing the minimum here under the circumstances. >> Um, that there was one more question. I'm sorry that you reminded me of Thank
you. Um, is our failure to um fund OPED a factor in our bond rating or not our failure to because we never failed to. Is OPED funding a factor in the bond rating
for borrowing? I would say yes. any any attempt by the town or municipality to put aside funds towards long long-term obligations is obviously seen favorably by our credit
agencies as well as putting money towards reserves. Both reflect positively in our credit rating. >> Thank you. That's it. >> All right. And then I just have one more question for Ian that at the rate of our
current giving to OPED, how many years will it be before it's fully funded? >> At our last financial audited um or our our previously funded financial statements, we were at about
29% funded. Um in terms of an actuarial amount, I can't give you that information that I'm not sure. I'd have to look. But you'd say probably longer than 10 years. >> Yes, I would say >> longer than 15 years. >> I would say at least that. Yes.
>> So we are putting money away that we may be able to spend 20 years from now. Maybe not. So it just is a with real needs now versus this. We're paying for the medical one way or the other out of operating budget. real needs now versus
money someday our ancestors may be able to take out. That's what we're doing right now. >> I I c you're not wrong and I can't can't argue with you. I just can't again I I I can't imagine us being the first to say
forget it. We'll just set it aside. And I I totally understand what you're saying. I mean really that's why it is it's a really small amount and I maybe it could go get us somewhere on some other projects but um we felt pretty
strongly about this and that's that's why we pulled this out but I do appreciate the thoughts. >> I'll move we approve article five for the warrant. >> Second. >> Anything further on this? All those in favor?
Um, so that was four. >> Article four, right? >> I'm sorry. Article four, >> playground. So >> now we're on five, which is OP. >> I move we approve article five for the warranty. >> Second.
>> Any further? All those in favor? >> Okay. Six um is regarding the accelerated repair project at center elementary school. This is for the roof. language was uh vetted by MSBA
and bond council and town council and um this is the next step in the required phases for the accelerator repair project. Um, anything on this? >> All right. I will
>> I will move to approve article six. >> Second. >> Anything else? All those in favor? >> Okay. Article seven. Um, don't think you guys know much about this one. Hasn't been talked about. Uh this is the
funding for a borrowing authorization for the fiber project. Um amount has changed several times. Um we're at the 8.6 million. You all received uh cash flow and uh borrowing
schedule. Uh it was also attached to the agenda. Ian and I can answer any questions that you have. Um the 8.615 615 million gets us through phase one and part of phase two. >> Um well why don't we we want to move
forward to the spreadsheet now memo? >> Yeah we just discuss it. >> Yeah let's go ahead. So Ian want to jump to that please. >> Uh Josh you want me to go through the full memo is written? >> Uh I don't know. Do you have a
do you have a PowerPoint or presentation or why don't you um why don't you go through and explain it as best you can. >> So the select board uh asks for additional review by the town um for information regarding the financial
municipal project. Um I've created two spreadsheets to highlight the um project. One of the spreadsheets shows um how the money will come in and go out and the other project or the other spreadsheet shows the borrowing timeline for the
project. As Lynn alluded to um part of the project will be covered through the general fund. This is article 7. This will cover phase one and 50% of phase 2. The other borrowing will be strictly through the enterprise fund, the MOP that's been established by the select
board. This will be in phases two through five. Um both of these borrowings will take place in the form of bands. So they will be short-term borrowings in the general fund. This will be a short-term borrowing for two years where we will make interestonly
payments on the bonds and then upon year three we will roll these into a general obligation bond for the MLP. Um, as for phase two and phases three through five, we will initiate short-term borrowings
in the form of bands where we make interestonly payments on the first two years and then make principal payments up until the project is complete when these bands will be rolled into a general obligation bond. on the borrowing schedule. Uh the green table
represents the four different bands that are rolled into the ultimate bond. This bond is net of principal payments made on the bands during the time frame. Uh the borrowing schedule does not show interest payments made on the bands.
This is just in an effort to save space. Um looking at the other schedule, the other schedule is um our cash flow model which looks specifically at the enterprise fund. It is important to note that this does not show any impact on the general
fund nor is any general fund debt service captured in this cash flow. This is strictly for the enterprise fund itself. So if there are questions about why the debt service is not showing correctly, it's because this is the enterprise fund cash flow only. So
looking at the cash flow statements, this models from fiscal year 2027 through fiscal year 201 with the customer revenues ramping up through 2034 when the project is expected to be complete. Uh the network
costs are our estimates provided by Fiverr Springs as to what the cost will be for the ISP to maintain the services. Uh which would give us our net MLP revenue on a year-to-year basis. Again, the assumptions used this used in this
model represent a 40% take rate. Um the borrowings assume a 4% interest cost. I just looked today at our um comparison rate models as every month Erica Brunell treasurer provides the town um
comparison yields for other communities what they borrow um as we are a double A+ um I use the 4% which is conservative in nature we are seeing anything from 3 to three and a half% for borrowings of
similar sizes so it is something to consider that if the town were to go forward with this, we could see much more favorable interest rates than this model projects. Below uh includes the expenses related to this project, including the biggest
piece, which is our debt service, uh manager compensation, equipment, software licenses, marketing, insurance, accounting, and auditing, and our replacement fund. This replacement fund represents 3% of the customer revenues that are generated on an annual basis
over the life of the project. This uh all totals the MLP uh surplus and deficit based on the model presented. Um the initial year 2027 would require an additional general fund subsidy of about
$79,000. After uh that uh there is two years where the MLP is projected to have a deficit. The goal would be to use the retained earnings built by the fund in order to offset those deficit years
without requiring a general fund subsidy. And what I mean by a general fund subsidy is this would require an additional tax levy on the town in the form of either an article or use of free cash. So just to highlight the main things of
what what this is and why this is different than what Fiverr Springs has presented in the past. Um Fiverr Springs model looked at a long-term borrowing right away. This involves the town paying both principal and interest immediately which means that the project
would be paid back faster. However, the cash flow would not be as favorable as there would be no associated revenues paying for these borrowings. The only option with that would be in the form of property taxes being charged
to the residents in the form of the debt exclusion that is being voted on. The town's approach uses a short-term borrowing the during the construction which allows interest only for the first couple years then switching to a long-term borrowing as the project is complete with the goal being to minimize
the tax impact felt by residents in the form of only one borrowing as a debt excluded vote and the uh residual borrowings um for the enterprise fund would be funded through the finance charges assessed
by assessed to the residents. >> Thank you, Ian. Appreciate you uh working on that. Open up to questions. >> Um yeah, I guess my first question you is about your um your depreciation rate. Mhm. >> Um
the actual model they had sent out uses 3% of the capital expenditure, not of the um funds submitted, which is significantly higher and makes more sense in terms of replacement cost. So where we're showing about 80,000 a year,
they're showing closer to a million when it's fully implemented. Um, being a town with a lot of deferred maintenance, I feel like they're saying that's a 33y year run rate on the equipment, which to me seems way too long for a
technology spend anyways. >> So, I would say that your depreciation costs are significantly lower than they should be if we want to have a maintainable, sustainable system going forward. That would be my first comment on that model. >> Sure.
Um so that was one comment about that model and it would change it dramatically to put in their estimates. >> Um I am again really uncomfortable with anything technology related that we are
pushing out as long as we are. In my lifetime I have received internet probably seven different ways already. And maybe fiber is the end all beall of all things in the future. quite possible, but I'm going to suggest it's
quite also possible that there's something totally different in 10 years that makes it obsolete >> and then we will have been doing this. And I feel like if we as a town really are serious about wanting to do this, we should do it with a much shorter depth service than what we're doing because
that is the more likely payback range of what it needs to be. So, as we look to this, what I've been trying to figure out is are we bringing cyber or fiber to Long Meadow because we think it's a tremendously better service that people really want and are willing
to pay a little bit extra over Comcast to get it or are we bringing it because we want it to be cheaper than Comcast? Because if we're setting it out to try to be cheaper than Comcast, then I am really worried that we're just selling
it cheap, up, gathering a lot of debt, and then just really hoping that this is the end- all beall thing we is for the for the next 20 to 30 years. So, I just as we look at this, I am not against this, but I want us to be realistic
about what it's truly going to cost the town and cost individuals and minimize the risk that we as a town are going to be taking on as part of this, right? So, if it truly we only think people will come in if we're cheap, then we're already screwed in that model because
Comcast can undercut us easy, right? So, if it's that much better, how do we get people to agree it's better enough that I'm willing to pay 25% more to cover the debt faster to get that stuff and model around that instead? So, that's my take
on it at this moment. I don't think we have done the work we need to do to protect the town and bring people the service that they're asking for in the way that it is sustainable and supportable by the town going forward. So, other people from the finance committee had a chance to look at it and
think about it. >> Yeah. Well, I think that the um there's probably folks on the select board that want to respond to the stuff you said before we start bombarding with more questions. >> Let us all turn to >> Okay. Well, I mean, I I don't think that
um No, no. I I appreciate these, you know, obviously um the comments. Um, I think that the the intention wasn't to provide a service that was cheaper than Comcast. It was to provide a service that offered better value. And um you know I think
that what we've seen in all the communities around us that have all gone to town on fiber um is extreme extraordinary satisfaction rates with the type of service that they receive with the customer service that that they receive with the technical support that they receive um and with the transparent
pricing and knowing that this is infrastructure that the town owns their money stays in their town. Um you know what we've also seen um is that uh you know and just to kind of add on to that you know there's a lot of I think pride in that as well. Um and then in terms of
you know the longevity of this I think this is something that um select board members asked when fibers came and something that you know we looked into as well that there are you know obviously limits to how much um more you know how much faster how much more reliable uh technologies like 5G which
is like a you know relying on kind of outdated radio frequency technology um or even you know satellite technology like Starlink. There are upper limits to those technologies where you know with fiber you're talking about something that uh is going to be connected into
your home providing a signal and you know the way that you upgrade it is by improving the or just by upgrading upgrading what's connected to each side uh of that cable. Um and so the it's much easier to upgrade moving forward.
um and it will just be able to provide a more reliable, faster service than um anything really on the horizon. And I think that's why, you know, we've seen so many communities around us make this investment. Um and we've seen um you know, how popular these investments have
been there. Um and so, you know, you know, that's what I would say about that. >> Um Sure. And I've walked into schools that invested heavily in Smartboards because it was all the wave and they're like sitting there with stuff hung on now. So, I'm not disagreeing that it may
be the thing forever, but I'm also saying if you look at technology, it's a big bet. And it's like, would you buy a car with a 30-year loan with a 20-year loan? This is what we're talking about technology-wise. And if the value is the thing that
they're for and they like all that stuff, then why are we not looking at rates and saying this is the rate we would need to charge to make this financially stable? Why are we starting with the $90 as opposed to saying no, we do want to pay it off in 7 to 10 years
and this is what it would cost to do that. So I haven't seen that analysis where we actually say what is the true cost if we were going to do that. We've just made this super long-term assumption and there seems to be kind of a general fear that if we think about it too much, people won't adopt it and then
the whole thing kind of falls apart. That's just the sense I've gotten. So, I feel like we should spend more time really modeling different models of let's pay it off in seven years, let's pay it off in 10 years, let's pay it off in 15 years, what are the rates, what are people willing to do, actually ask
people what they'd be willing to pay for it, and then we would have a much better financial model built. um beneath if I could. Um yeah, so just so that I can kind of focus us a little bit, the only ask right now is the warrant article to fund phase one and half of phase two.
>> Uh which would not the the customer rates don't have any impact on that. That is a debt exclusion that would be borne by the taxpayers. So, when you're talking about um rates and adjusting that to pay it off sooner, that's the MLP that would need to have that
conversation for phases 2.5 through five. So, it's just it's a different group of people essentially, and it's a different conversation. >> Um well, I disagree with that. We're doing this in the intention of moving forward with the full project. No one's saying we're going to borrow 8 million
and then stop or I would like to know that if we are saying that but I we I think we're saying that this is a thing that's going to be the whole this is a piece we need to provide it but we need to really look at the entire model itself to understand whether that first investment is worthwhile I do not hold
that as a separate thing you wouldn't look at >> if the question is about doing a shorter term borrowing then for the purpose of this article. The only option that the town has if
they do not want to have it as part of the general fund budget is a 20-year borrowing through debt excluded property taxes. That is the only option that the town has. Outside of that, when we're looking at the future project in the
form of funding it through the enterprise fund, that is where we can look at different financing options if the board or the MLP so chooses. But this in this instance, the only option that the town has would be a 20-year
borrowing through property taxes. >> And a bit of that is because we are in the unfortunate position of not having our a real utility. Uh when South Hadley was in front of us giving their presentation, they everything came back
to well, we just borrowed against our uh our light our electric plan. All right. Well, great. we can't do that. And so it does limit our options on what we're able to do out of the gate. And so the the approach that they modeled was very
different than the approach that we would want to model, which is doing everything we can to limit the impact on taxpayers, which is as Lynn was saying, really what we have the ability to do. Uh and I I agree. Yeah, we we we can't
look at it completely uh siloed this off, but this is a it is a different question of how this is going to go long term. Um because if there is depending on the take rate, uh
there may be very favorable scenarios on that borrowing that may be able to be paid back quicker just by having a higher take rate. But again, we are none of us can predict the future. So, >> okay. So, let me just state it a
different way. You're asking the town of Long Meadow to invest in a business or the residents of Long Meadow to invest in a business without giving them any sense of how you intend to run that business other than some general we put a 90, we
put a 40 in there, we think the debt replacement. So, they don't really know what you're going to do because you haven't told them. So, I'm just saying that these are the things I saw, which is right now we are doing a 20-year bond. We're assuming we're going to play that out. That is the most expensive way
to borrow for this, by the way, because it has the longest most longer term interest rates on it. And we are setting a rate of 90 based on I don't know what because usually when you are marketing something, you you kind of decide what your costs are and you set a rate based on that. But I haven't seen it. So,
you're asking the town of Long Meadow to invest in a business, and I haven't seen that business give me anything that I feel comfortable investing in yet is how I would feel about it. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Um, so I have a couple questions. Um
the first was um we talked about staying focused on um on the topic of the warrant article which is the initial barring 8 million dollars give or take. Um
my understanding is that that initial borrowing, the $8 million figure is significantly higher than what was initially presented which was in the $1 million some odd dollar
range. And I am wondering and I my question is what accounts for if that is correct what accounts for that difference and if that is related to what Josh you mentioned which was the like South Hadley for example having the
utility that they could borrow against. Is that what's accounting for the difference? So number one is this difference that I'm talking about correct? Number two what is the cause? If so, what is the cause? >> Yeah. So the so I guess that first
number so that the first range that was offered was a range of like 1.5 to 4.5 and that was dependent on take rate and so that was based on a model where the $27 million was all borrowed by the town and the enterprise fund the MLP was
making payments to the town um in you know against that debt to help with that debt service. And so saying basically like the enterprise fund would make would be able to make this amount of uh amount in payments so that the town would be uh you know would have either a
1.5 or $4.5 million um you know liability left afterwards. um what Ian um has offered is different in that uh what Ian is saying is let's do the and then also and just to clarify with that that was based off of the 30year uh
immorization when you when we looked at it as a 20-year that range was actually somewhere between I think it was um I think it was like 4.5 to 8.7 million. So So that's where Ian kind of got the 8.6 million number because that's kind of
the 40% take rate. That's what would probably would have happened if we had borrowed that way instead. But I think what Ian came up with actually just makes this much um easier and clearer to understand is to just say the town is going to build out the first pilot area, half of phase 2 um as kind of like seed
money, like startup costs, right? And then um that will give the enterprise fund time to connect or you know be able to offer uh fiber to 1,600 homes, 30 businesses. you start generating revenue and then that revenue would then uh fund
the rest of the buildup and so that's what accounts for for the difference there. >> So um talking about those uh that 1600 initial
funding the rest of the buildout and um you referenced the take rate. The take rate meaning what percentage of potential subscribers for lack of a better word are going to in all the lawn metal are
going to actually subscribe to this service. So my understanding is the range you mentioned a 1.5 to 4 million range versus the eight uh versus the the 3
million to 8 million range. The my understanding is the difference between those from what you're saying is that in the one case it was 30 years that was shortened to 20 years. that accounts for
the jump in the borrowing. Is that >> right? >> Okay. Right. So now, so we've identified why there was jump in the borrowing because we got to do a shorter loan. Okay. So now we're talking about what we're expecting in terms of the take rate, meaning how many people are going to subscribe
being 40%. the range of in in the first instance 1.5 to to four versus now uh three to eight is am I correct in saying that
that is tied to that take rate range meaning if we have a 40% range then that's the low end excuse me a 40% take rate that's the low end and then that would mean 8 million if it was higher
60% % then that would push it down to the three. Is that correct? >> And so that was under the old model, not what Ian is proposing. Yeah. Yeah. With Ian, it's just it's 8.6 million as you know a borrowing for the town.
>> Okay. Yeah. Now then my question is is the 8.6 based on a range or is the 8.6 definitely the figure? >> 8.6 six funds the construction of the central fiber hub uh and then the whole
pilot area and half of phase 2. So it would connect 1,600 homes. >> So yes, 8.6 is the figure that needs to be borrowed to for that for those phases that you've described. >> Yes. Yes. >> Now and the uh the 40 point the 40% take
rate of subscribers is an assumption correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. Now, now my next question is that 40% take rate, excuse me, yes, the 40% uh
take rate assumption. Um what is that assumption based upon? >> Yeah. So, in Western Mass of the communities that have town own fiber, that has been the lowest that a town has had a take rate of is 40%. So that's
kind of like the floor that we see >> of the towns that have done that have implemented this. Yes. That >> at a minimum they end up with 40% take rate. >> Yeah. So like for for example uh South Hadley who we're partnering with on this uh they just finished building out their
entire town last summer and they have a 55% take rate already. So more than half the town is already subscribing uh to their fiber internet. Yeah. And then so what like e so in Ian's um cash flow chart that he put together um you know it's going off of 40% take rate.
If that initial, you know, if we're getting 40% that covers all the operating expenses for the enterprise fund and would be able to cover the debt service to build out the rest of the town and and you know, if you take a look at kind of what the expenses are
for uh the enterprise fund, most of it is the debt service, right? It's actually to c to run the network, the operating expenses for the network is not that expensive. It's really the debt service that um you know is makes up I think 80% of all the operating expenses.
>> That's our final debt, isn't it? 17 million. >> So the debt service on the original $8 million of borrow. >> No, sorry. So the debt service to build out the rest of the town. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. So
the revenues from the the subscribers are going to fund the debt service on the remaining buildout or is that something separate? >> It should. Yeah, it it's it's projected
to fund the remaining buildout of the town. >> There's more debt that we're taking on. We go up to almost 15 million in debt by the time we're done. The MLP does. >> The MLP does, not not the town. >> Okay. But there's 18 million in debt in the MLP, right?
>> Yes. >> What? Sorry. >> Okay. But there's more debt brought on. >> It might be the MLP, >> right? Right. >> The the MLP is owned by the town.
>> Um the I mean the MLP is a separate entity. >> Okay. Yeah. >> So we can bail on it and it's fine. I don't I don't know about bail. You have an option of bail. I mean, it's it's a separate entity. It runs. >> Okay. But if it can't pay, it's that service. What happens?
>> Well, yeah. I mean, so so I mean, there but there's a couple of different things that could happen, I think. And I think maybe Ian could speak to this uh to to this more, but um you know, I think that there's also uh you know, obviously rate payers, there's potentially if we do
emick, there's municipal aggregation that could be a backs stop. There's there are a lot of different things that the MLP could use as a backs stop. >> Okay. But if it defaults, does that impact the town in any way? >> I mean, I'm sure. I mean this is
>> I mean we might not be obligated to pay but it could impact us in other ways right? >> I I assume so. Yeah. I mean >> if the MLP were to default yes it would impact the town. >> Okay. >> So the town guarantee the debt.
>> The town would guarantee the general fund debt as it's funded through property taxes. the enterprise fund, depending on how it's borrowed, could be um guaranteed. If the bonds are revenue bonds, it's not
necessarily the case. And >> how are the debts secured? Are they secured on uh the poles, the infrastructure? >> It would be secured on the infrastructure. Yes. So the fees that are going to come in
are not going to alleviate um the project from doing additional borrowing. additional barring is going to have to take place in order to complete the buildout for to service the
the the what we would I guess call a full um service to the town. Not not maybe not necessarily every single household in every single but but basically full service to the town. Additional debt is going to have to be taken on beyond the 8 million,
>> right? But the 8 million, but that is not going to be borrowing that's done through a town warrant article like this. It's going to be taken on in a different way by a different entity. >> Yes. So the MLP would be making the debt
service payments. >> And the MLP is a utility. >> So when we talked earlier about South Hadley has a utility, we don't. We're gonna make a utility and that is the MLP. Is that correct? >> Yes.
>> And then the MLP, a different entity, the utility, Lawn Meadows utility company is going to borrow the additional money to do the buildout. And the projection or the expectation is that
the additional borrowing to do the rest of the buildout is going to come completely from the fees and revenues that are raised from the services that are being provided by the um by the
fiber company, not by the town of Long Meadow taking on an additional warrant article debt. Is that yes? >> Yes. >> Okay. And the mechanism
for that to be approved is because the MLP utility is going to be independent. So they're not going to have to come to town meeting to say look we need to borrow 17 million more. That they're going to do that on their own. The this
is in theory because it hasn't formed yet. Yes. >> So I think so this is complicated but >> sure that's why we have this meeting with all these people here. >> So uh so we had so our according to our town council and I also looked at the
statute it looks like even if the MLP is going to incur debt they still have to get approval at town meeting. Okay. So u and it's a twothirds um vote that they'd have to get at town meeting. We've also talked to other towns that have MLPS
that have said ours is structured in a way where we don't do that. We just need a majority of uh a vote by the MLP board to incur that. So unclear. I mean I I would say but from what I understand of it, it it looks like it would still need
to come to the town to have a twothirds vote at town meeting. >> Okay, that's clear. So well as clear as I I think as as we can make it right now. So that then the next question is we are currently
in excess of our select board policy in terms of borrowing. Yes. I don't believe >> when if we if the MLP >> goes to if the MLP
brings it to the town to take on additional bar or let's say the MLP doesn't whether the MLP does or doesn't for the additional borrowing is that additional borrowing going to count against the town's borrowing for
the purposes of the select board policy for our debt no >> uh borrowing limits. Well, let's cover the incons. >> Currently, our debt service for FY27 is $9.9 million compared to our general fund operating budget of 83.2 million,
giving a percentage of 11.95%. Now, this includes the first year of interest for the new Williams Middle School project. If we add the first year interest due of the fiber project, which is about 345,000, our debt service would increase to about 10.2 2 million giving us a new
percentage of 12.36. So that would put us over the policy >> which is >> uh 12%. Now it is important to note that this would change with FY28's operating budget as we're looking at FY27's numbers and we're not including u 2 and
a half% plus new growth plus any other revenues generated as compared to what our operating budget is. So it it's not exactly that 12.36, but it could be close to that. >> Within the last two meetings, Ian has
run through and looked at our debt projections over the next uh with all of our current borrowings. So, >> so I guess so the question the next question is um you with your projections is it um is the select board's understanding that
this borrowing um given what may happen in uh in subsequent fiscal years that this even with this borrowing there is a possibility that we might still be within the policy in terms of borrowing or are we definitely going to be over?
We are definitely going to be over once the Williams Middle School project starts. >> That that would be the significant borrowing for the town to undertake. >> I I think I just heard Cara say what what's the most >> how much over? >> Yeah. >> What is the most
>> in the projections? What's the What's the So you reference 12.3 I heard another reference by town number of 16%. >> Here's 12. I don't I don't know what that was based on, but what's the most over policy? We'll see what the these projections
>> it's. It's hard to say without having the exact operating budget to compare, but it could very well be in the range of about 14 to 16%. >> Thank you. >> And could I just ask um the S&P letter
that we had um that is already saying that our debt is concerning compared to other towns, do you think that this is going to factor negatively into the ratings going forward? One of the things that S&P looks at when they review um
debt projects or any type of debt taken on by the town is the financial stability of the project. It would certainly help the town to know that there are revenues associated with this borrowing to help pay off the debt service over the life of the bond. I
can't speak to the specific nature of if this will have an impact on our credit rating. It certainly might. Um unfortunately the timing of our credit rating agency um discussion is after town meeting so I won't be able to give an accurate answer as to what the impact
will be but it's certainly a chance that this will impact it. >> Uh which brings me to a question that um I I can't take credit for because um I can't take credit for the idea for this question. This is something that um was sort of taught to me over many years by
um another uh finance committee member that would always ask this. I'm not going to um what if we don't do this now? What are we risking? What do we lose? What what what if we defer this to when
we have more favorable numbers or uh maybe we could get I'm not going to start speculating on what we could do. What is there any urgency that we're missing or that we're that we haven't talked about if we don't do this in this
warrant article? Because you said we we wouldn't even have the numbers in time if we're doing it for this warrant article. If we didn't do it for this warrant article, what what is the risk? What is the um I I'd like to hear this the board members thoughts on that of us
putting it off another cycle, another two cycles. Any has that been discussed? Are there any thoughts on that? I'd want to hear what what you folks have to say about that. >> Yeah, I mean I would say that you I think just construction prices and everything would just increase. It just make the project more expensive uh the
longer that we wait. Um also there are you know poll applications that are currently in with um pole owners of Eversource and Verizon for this project. You know that was part of the funding uh from the November 2024 special town meeting. Um there are time limits on how
long those poll applications can stay live. So, um, you know, I don't know if if we were to defer this a year or two years whether we'd have to reapply and spend another $250,000 on pull applications. Um, so that, you know,
that's another consideration. >> Can I just address something? Sorry, that was um mentioned. Um, I just wanted to also point out that whether it's this project or any other large type of project, we have a revenue problem. We cannot do these types of projects
without a borrowing. So if it's not this project that you're you're asking about the credit rating for, it's going to be the next project and the next project and the next project. This is one of the very few, if not only project that has come forward that actually generates revenue. So I think that's important to
think about when you're looking at the long term. There is a revenue source attached to this. Whereas all of these other borrowings that we've done, there is no revenue coming in. we are just paying for roofs and uh chillers and windows and all sorts of needs. So,
the credit rating thing is always going to be at our doorstep because that's how we're paying for our projects is by borrowing for them. >> Yeah, that's I just two points. Um one I I wanted to say what echo what Lynn was going to say. Is there aspects of this that make me nervous? Yes, absolutely.
Um, but sometimes you there there are risks that are inherent in uh you're taking a big swing. Um, and that's because one one of the things that Lynn always says to us is, you know, we we keep knocking on the same doors. There's only so many places we can make revenue
in this town and it's raising taxes. The fact that there is something here that may have a be a net positive for the town is really it's really tempting. Um if if I could if we could guarantee it was going to work, we'd all vote for it.
Absolutely. But uh we just we just don't know. But the projections and and credit to Ian for doing some good thinking on this and for the task force on uh even exploring it as far as it did was that
maybe it can and I think that that is that we have to really take that into account. The other thing on Lauren, your question, if we wait on this, we know that there's another company out there that has pole applications in uh Gateway Fiber.
If they if we wait, they'll smell blood and hop in on this. And what I what I think and I have not heard all the things that Ben has heard, but they will build out if they build out at all, they will build out some of the town. They will not build out all of the town.
They'll build build out the most affluent and closely uh habitated parts of town and once they decide that they've reached their capacity on what is going to make the money they'll stop and then the rest of the town no other
company will ever do it and no other uh and it wouldn't make financial sense for us at that point unless we can do the whole town. Um, so I think that that is something that will uh is a consequence of waiting. And I also think and like I
said, I have concerns about this, but if we don't do it, I think that Comcast will they're already funneling a ton of money in uh through their uh through their dark funding. And they will they'll also smell blood. And you will
just start seeing your rates creep up. they'll say nobody else is ever going to compete with us. Um you know not that not that either of those are reasons to absolutely vote for this but there to me that something that we h we have to
consider. um with respect to the gateway piece um and the concern that if we do not move now that gateway will I guess
preempt us is what I'm hearing. >> We're already kind of at the same spot right now. Is is it are are we saying that if Long Meadow votes to do this that Gateway
will be legally preempted from doing it or are we saying that Gateway that we speculate that Gateway will be discouraged from doing it? I'm I'm trying to I want to understand what is the what is the the the blocking mechanism on gateway which is it's a
private company right so like Comcast some other company they're going to they they want to do the same thing but they want to do it so that they build it it's their network they charge the money they collect all the money it's just it's theirs they're just another uh cable company
um if we vote to do this is that going to stop them >> this is something I think I know the answer to but I'm not sure Uh, no. I mean, so there's nothing that like a town could do to block them. Uh, I mean, it would be a very high bar. It would have to It presents like a public safety
issue, which is such a high bar that's basically not even relevant. Uh, because the polls are owned by private companies. They're owned by Eversource and Verizon and Eversource and Verizon kind of decides who can get on the polls. So, um, it would so there's nothing the town could do or anyone else could do to like block them. Um I think
uh but what we have seen in western Mass is that a private company has not competed with town own fiber. So there have been instances like in East Long Meadow and West Springfield where uh private companies had poll applications in once the towns decided to move forward with town owned fiber the uh
third parties uh pulled their poll applications. So, um, you know, I just think that I mean, if you take a look at, you know, you know, I think just kind of add on to what Josh was saying, too. Um, the city of Springfield had, uh, discussions about this last summer because there's a private company
starting to build out in Springfield and they identified the same problems that, you know, they call them honeypotss that like these private companies will come in, they'll build out the very profitable areas of town and then, you know, the rest of the town just get left behind. And I think, you know, when we were looking at this as part of the
municipal fiber task force, one of the principles that we had was we wanted to ensure that every home in Long Meadow could sign, you know, could fi um sign up for fiber if they wanted to. Um and that it shouldn't become the situation where some parts of town get this and others get left behind. Um, and I also
think that just the the type of service, the quality of service that uh some of these private companies uh provide, I mean, the design and engineering, all this stuff is kind of done on the cheap. Uh, it's just to maximize profit really. Um, you know, if you talk to folks like
in Northampton, you know, there's a lot of folks that signed up for Gateway and are now switching back to Exfinity, which is kind of mind-boggling that somebody could be offering fiber, but the service is that poor that they're actually uh switching back to Exfinity. Um, and so I think that's part of the
reason why some of these private companies don't try to compete with town on fiber because town on fiber like we what the way we're constructing it or proposing to construct it is more expensive than what a private company would do because we're using better materials, better design and engineering. Um, but it's because we
want to be able to provide something that's going to last and provide value for the town and it's not just about maximizing profit at the outset. >> Josh, hopefully two quick questions. one are we have we talked about are we going to build it out so the town and the
schools that they're able to go on it and we save money and have we talked about what that's going to save or are they going to be charged and are they part of the revenue how is that being handled >> so I think the town and the schools already have fiber existing but once we
um if we were to get this online I think some of that fiber right now is uh administered by the Massachusetts Broadband Institute So then it would they would no longer have to administer it. We would be administering it. It would be saving costs on that front. I'm not sure exactly how much that would amount to,
but >> that goes it goes to Boston, right? They they explained it to us. It's >> I think so. Yeah. >> Yeah. It's a complex network. >> And who who is going to be responsible for the maintenance of this system? Uh employed people employed by us, the MLP,
Fibers. >> No. Yeah. So Fiberpring. So, uh, this is part of the the contract that we would have with Fiverr. And this is the same model that, you know, other towns have been using with Whip City. Um, and we would be doing with Fiverr. So, Fiverring would take care of all of the
admin, billing, uh, customer support, technical support, um, and they would take care of all that. >> But, um, just to add on to that, the town would own the infrastructure. So, for some reason, we didn't want to use Fibers anymore, it's ours, and we can go to a different vendor.
Okay. Thanks, Clint. >> I could say something following on with something Josh said. Um, you know, I think I I don't know if this is going to be a success. I don't think anyone truly truly knows. You know, there's clearly valid points in favor and against. And
we've heard a lot of a lot of of questions. Um, and I I'll admit when I thought it was going to be maybe one and a half million, then it was going to be three or four million, now it's 8.6 million. Yeah. that gives us pause. That's a significant number for our town. But in the final analysis, I think, you know, even though there could
be of course better proposals and um a lot of things have been suggested like that are that are very good suggestions, like wait, why don't we ask the town if you're they're going to sign up? Then we'll know if 40% of the people will sign up. Honestly, I think it's really a referendum on if people in this town
want Fiverr. And if they do and they think it's important, they're going to it's going to pass. And if they don't and they don't think it's worth it, it's not going to pass. And everyone of us probably falls somewhere on the spectrum between against it to for it. But like Josh said, it's it's not right now. I
think we're deciding to put it on the war. And I certainly see no matter how any of us feels about it that there's no reason not to put on the war so the town can decide. And I think that that's what's going to happen. You guys have a very important role in looking at it and saying, does this make sense
financially? you've raised a lot of great questions obviously um a lot of questions I think people out there also have um and so it's really important that what you guys honestly it's really important what you guys think as well so >> well I'm going to go back to Andrew
though just that's great except that what I've seen is a financial model which I have questions about it doesn't I mean it's going to cost us more if we wait we don't have inflation built into that financial model so it's an interesting because it's built out over five years I don't know what the goals
are in I mean other than to play it out as long as we can to minimize cost now which I don't think is a good idea. I don't know how rates are going to be set. I don't know a lot of things about how this thing is going to run. Alls I know is that we want to build something and this is what it's going to cost and we think it's going to be great but the
business model part of it is not clear to me at all. >> There was no inflation in the projection. Well, I mean also I mean so the so right the the construction takes place over you know the next five years and so
there's a lot of it is upfront costs in that sense is that it's all going to happen over the next five years and you know most of the expenses are debt service which is a fixed cost right so um so you know of course there's going to be some inflation and wage inflation I think like Eric and I were kind of
talking about this today u over the next five years and you know that will have to be accounted for if or if that wants to be you know if someone could wants to model that out um you know but I think this is this is an estimate of of what
this would be >> yeah I mean there's a lot of assumptions um and I think that the people who have made those assumptions have very did did so very earnestly and sincerely but obviously there's some assumptions about the interest rate there's assumptions that we're making because we don't have
the make ready us and that's what the 27 million is based on as is inflation. So, you know, yeah, those are valid valid points that you made. >> And if we actually had higher acceptance, 27 million is not the number. If you have higher acceptance, it gets up to I mean, if everyone
accepted it, the number is 35 million. So, just everybody needs to be aware that there's a lot of numbers in there and we're doing it based on a bunch of assumptions. Now, if everybody accepted the model's going to fall clean, and I know that, but it's we need to understand there's more coming in this. And we really haven't seen those
options. We haven't seen kind of the outside of it. I think it's worthy of doing that and showing it to people in a very honest way. If this is our public utility, we should freaking have access to that. >> Well, yeah. And I will say too that, you know, the um ju just to make clear that
the plant cost, the total plant cost would be more expensive because you are building out uh in the beginning before uh you know all the revenue is coming in and so that's why it would increase the cost of that uh but also would make it cheaper overall.
>> I agree it makes it cheaper overall but it may require us to take on even more than the 18 million. I mean so just as we look at that I mean I think it's worthy of better modeling better understanding and stuff being presented to the population about yes we've
thought through this and rates may indicate stuff that you'll pay a little bit more when we start this to get this thing like that need to be embedded in it. Yeah. I mean, and I mean, I I what I will say is that, you know, this model is based off of all the other models in
Western Mass that have worked. And then, you know, when people are talking about how risky this project is, um, and the risk involved with it, you know, this has not failed anywhere in Western Mass, this has succeeded. Every single place that it's rolled out. Um, and and so I just want to make that clear. And that's
also why the task force ended up with this recommendation and felt so strongly about it was because this has worked everywhere in Western Mass. >> Ian, something that I think people would like to know, and I know you've calculated because you told us, but how
much would the average homeowner's property tax go up for the 8.6 million? >> Sure. Let us know. >> So, the average home price in Long Meadow as of 26 is about $565,000. uh with a two-year short-term borrowing and a 20-year long-term borrowing, the
estimated tax impact of the average household would be $2,140 or an average of about 97 additional dollars of tax over the life of the loan per year. Our goal is to have this tax calculator on the website for access by
the end of the week. >> So 2140 over the 20 years is an average home a home. If you have a home worth 565, that's how much you pay and it comes down to like 97 bucks a year. >> Ian, just sticking into one of the assumptions. >> Yeah,
>> the 4% interest rate, I know you talked about that a little bit struck me as maybe a little low. I know you mentioned, I think earlier comments that it could even be maybe in the threes. How what's your confidence with that rate? And is there any risk that it instead of, you know, 3% it's 6% by the
time borrowing comes around? Yeah, that's a great question, Marty. I mean, right now, uh, interest rates are pretty volatile with everything that's going on in the world. So, it's really important that in the model, I try to use a more conservative rate. I tried to mention
earlier that we are seeing better rates by um comparative uh municipalities but I certainly want I wouldn't want to give a lower rate and give the impression that the cost would be cheaper than it already is or that cheaper that it could
be. So that's why I felt a 4% was fair in this model. It certainly is, you know, unfortunately we don't know where interest rates will go in the next five years and it very well could be that it could be higher than that. But um given the fact that the town has a double A+
rating, we have seen that um S&P and other creative credit credit rating agencies have said that we've traded a AAA which is the best possible but we have a double A plus. So we should see favorable credit ratings. Is the pop quiz over?
>> What's what's the percentage of vote of the town to approve this? Is it 67 or >> 23? >> 2/3. >> 2/3. >> But, you know, this is also going to follow the same process as the middle school. So, it would be a twothirds at town meeting and then a ballot vote at our annual town election on on June 2nd.
Yeah, >> which is just a majority. >> Which is just a majority. >> I guess my only question is Ian, are you going to adjust what you have in there for depreciation and do you think it's going to change your model significantly? >> So, I'd have to go back and look to make
sure I am understanding what you're talking about for the depreciation. But if it is correct that it is using capital costs instead of um revenues, then it could change the model. Yes. >> Okay. Now just as an aside this also um we are
building a um revenue fund in the model but we're also taking into effect that if the enterprise is profitable there will be there will be retained earnings as well being built on the side. So that could almost act as an additional
reserve for the enterprise itself. >> It could but it wouldn't be intentional and could be used for other things too. So it would be better to have the appropriate depreciation budgeted into it. Right. >> Agreed. >> All right. Um what is the board's
pleasure? >> All right. I will move to approve article 7. >> Second. I just start off I will just discuss a bit. Um I I think that I'm always
grateful when we have these sessions with the finance committee. I think there's some great questions asked. Uh and I I really appreciate that the questions on the the model especially from America. Um I I think that for
a pop a portion of the population of our town uh the numbers that we present will probably never make them feel uh good about this and uh and I think that that's okay and that's uh you know that's why we have town meeting. People
can vote against it for whatever reason they want. Um but there's a lot of good information out there. We're going to continue to fine-tune that information and the way it's presented uh as Ian got some good notes today I'm sure uh and there's
a lot of opportunity to uh discuss it uh including at the the next session uh in two weeks when we or three weeks um when we have a a warrant session and people can ask plenty of questions on that. Um, so I'm gonna vote to to put this on uh
for the reasons I I mentioned before that I think that I it will never be perfect. I maybe it can be tuned and we can do that now. Um, but I think there's been a lot of work on this and the town's people deserve
the chance to to vote on it come what may. >> Uh, anybody else? Yeah, I would just say well first I want to thank uh the task force number one who worked on this uh and also beneath
um whether we agree with it or not um I mean there's a ton of work that goes into these types of these types of projects and I know just over you know probably the past few weeks or so um you know Veneath
has taken a lot of questions and in some cases uh some heat probably from unwarranted from people. Um, but I I think we all get involved because we want to try to make our community a better place. And one of the things that
that I've noticed just being on a select board is kind of what we walked into, which has been uh deferred maintenance, what Erica was talking about earlier, and the inability to really raise revenue uh in in a way that we can
actually uh benefit the overall community. So when I look at a project like this and when we have the municipal uh the MLP, I view that as an opportunity that the MLP can say, okay, we have uh seniors in town, we have uh
veterans in town, we can actually have flexibility with with the rates that our seniors are are paying for services uh for our veterans for maybe some folks who might fall through the the cracks. So, you're not getting that with
Comcast. And I think this is a bold statement for for us to make as a community to uh rally around and and provide a better service. Um, and I think 101 15 years ahead, we're going to look back and and say this is a really a
really good idea as opposed to what we're seeing now on the select board with things like water sewer which paying down rates was a really really bad idea and now we're paying for it as taxpayers. So, um, again th those are my thoughts. Obviously, there's a lot of uh
changes that can happen with the with the model and the numbers. Um, but as we saw at LA last uh town meeting or a couple town meetings ago that there was very overwhelming uh support and I think we have a really good opportunity right
now to uh improve um infrastructure in the town and provide um quality uh services um while keeping in mind we're also relying on the folks that are using this service to pay for um the the debt
as well. So, long story short, I I just want to thank Venice for all your work and everyone else uh on the task force uh the finance committee for weighing in. Um so, anyways, that's that's my two cents, but I I do appreciate all the uh the questions and um everyone's interest
um on the topic. So, thank you. >> All right. See nothing further. All those in favor? >> Thank you. Moving on to article 8. >> Article 8 um authorizes the town to join the Massachusetts Municipal Municipal
Wholesale Electric Company uh referred to as MWIC. This potentially opens us up to uh more favorable borrowing opportunities. Um but regardless, if we don't go with Emwick, there is no obligation. It's just uh joining the
cooperative there. um which could give us better borrowing author uh bettering better borrowing options. >> Question Lynn, >> if article 7 doesn't pass, do you think that article 8 is still important to do?
>> Um >> it gives us another option for aggregation rather than uh what what's the one we have now? Good energy. >> Yep. >> Yeah. So I think there's really no harm in it from what we know. Uh, and Lyn, I had a question on this as
well. Emwick, do we know or Ian, do we know what rates they do they give better rates or better terms or or what's the advantage of their financing? >> It still remains to be seen in terms of what the potential benefits would be. um
when we met with them, they talked about um preferential rates, but it, you know, we're still early on in the process and they have to do their own initial research into our community to in order to determine what that could be. So, I I don't have an answer.
>> That's okay. Thank you. >> We have a motion on article 8 or anything from the finance committee. >> I'm sure this is a finance financial >> a finance amendment or article. Yeah, it is. >> Is that financial impact? >> No.
>> No. >> No. >> Nobody wants the same thing either. >> All right. >> I'll move to approve article 8. >> Second. >> Any further? All those in favor. >> Nine. Nine is the budget. Um there's a
vote later on in the agenda for the actual FY27 budget. You have a budget article. Um, and it would be populated with the budget numbers that you approve later on in the agenda. >> Anything from finance on this? >> Well, it's um admittedly I haven't
really seen any summary of what the budget outcomes were. It's like what went up or down. I think school department went up a little and DPW went down. I think um at least my we've been worried about DPW for the same reason we're worried about maintenance and I
think my big question around DPW and I'm going to if other people have other questions was I feel like because we have not been able to fully staff DPW even at a flat budget they if they fully staffed that we would end up spending
more money but I wasn't but one of the things I had to ask Ian was how much how much overage they had in their budget every year like how much did they get back each year. That was the one question that I asked. >> Sure. So, um I went back five years to
look at this and if we look at from FY21 to FY25 just looking at the general fund, not looking at the enterprise funds, uh the DPW turned back about 375,000 per year in terms of uh their uh
appropriations to what they expended. >> Okay. And so how much less is their budget this year than last year? >> Pull that up. >> So, uh, the budget is, um, 384,000 of,
um, reduced expenses, but an overall $180,000 decrease in the general fund. >> Okay. So, basically, even if they fully spent their budget, they would be spending more than they spent last year on average.
to us. >> Yeah. So, >> so it would be more in terms of the cola impact >> for salaries, but uh there were some large expenditure cuts throughout the general fund. >> Okay. Yeah. I don't know. It's it's
that's I understand why we might have done it, but I also know that we haven't been spending all the money in DPW every year, so I don't know if it's an impact of service or not. That was the question. >> And this is something we talk about a lot select board. uh is a constant struggle as you said to fully staff. Uh
it's something we have worked very hard to try to remedy by paying trying to pay people more. Um I don't know if Sean has anything he wants to say if he's online, but um this is something we absolutely are have been watching and are concerned
with. Um and for to go back to your first question, schools were up 2.6, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. So a slight increase which was welcome or sorry a slight increase over
their uh two and a half um >> and then capital went in flat to last year. Right. So there was no inflationary adjustment. >> Correct. >> Right. Though that lovely $50,000 would make a lovely little inflationary adjustment on the capital. I just saying that. So so we're funding less in
capital this year. So I don't know. It's just a very interesting do we and I'm also worried because a lot of that capital is being paid is going to go to debt service for the $5 million bond that we built out
for the road. So our actual spending on capital is decreasing in total because we did that $5 million bond, >> right? But we did the bond so we could get a lot of work done that we got a lot more bang for our buck last year. we
did, but the total amount we're spending on capital is even lower because of it. So, we just have to be really careful with that stuff. And um again, I don't know anybody else on the finance committee. I just feel like we all agree it's there, but we're more committed to
funding than this. And it's just a very weird thing to me. So, >> well, I I wouldn't say it that way. We we don't want to ignore OPED and let that fall by the wayside because we can
only I always think of when our actions now versus what happens when the next select board comes in and if the next select board or two select boards from now looks back and says well in 2026 they said forget about OPED I don't want
that to be become the norm and does that go for capital projects as well absolutely Um, but sometimes we have to make decisions and that's what we did this year. >> Any other questions for finance committee on budgets?
>> I think I'll just add a note of thanks and appreciation for Ian. You and I have been working on the tax rate projection and uh going off of what's in the budget letter. I think we were only 20 cents off. So, good work on shipping that. >> Thanks, Marty. Thank you.
>> Appreciate your help on that. Anything else on article 9 or take a motion? >> I move that we approve article 9. >> Second further. All those in favor. Okay. Article 10 is um the capital plan.
We'll cover this more uh later in the meeting, but anything from finance at this juncture already been covered, I presume. Um and I maybe finance doesn't know this, but uh I guess it has now changed terms.
Uh we had field study or something before. >> Yes. >> And so can you explain what that the $200,000 is? >> Sure. Um, uh, when the capital plan was prepared and submitted by DPW, uh, at the time it was called like Williamsfield renovation or rehab or
something like that. Clearly, we're not doing that. Um, and so the project name has changed. We are anticipating heavy overuse of Russell Field and the high school practice field. We know that we will then need to design rehabilitation after those fields get so heavily
overused. they need to be overused because we have to move uh the sports that are at Williams and accommodate them elsewhere. And so this is the um starting funding for the design of that rehab work. >> Will that is it two full years of use at
the other fields? How long is William going to be offline for? >> It will be um yeah uh >> two springs. >> Two for Yeah, two for springs and um one and a half falls. Okay. >> Um, any motion on article 10?
>> I move to approve article 10. >> Second. >> Anything else? See nothing further. All in favor? >> 11. uh transfers the interest off the capital off the I'm sorry off the operating stabilization fund into capital stabilization fund. This was
enacted last year. Um this is the amount this year and we just have an article there to transfer the funds >> and then this would come up at the fall vote. >> Uh yeah, assuming that we have um a project ready to
work on which likely we would. >> Okay. But yes, I mean, so this is to be then used based on the fall meeting. >> Okay, >> that's exciting. >> Thank you to the finance committee for your work on uh getting this policy for us. >> Yep.
>> Look forward to using the money. >> Have a motion. >> Um I just want to thank the select board for continuing with this because it has to be um tended. It's not
automatic. it has to be implemented as a policy and you guys have to keep on voting um voting to support this and so we thank you for that. >> That's a good point. This is something that we should always have on our look
aheads going forward and if our if the regime changes we need to make sure people keep doing it. >> Yep. >> Good point. >> And move to move article 11 to the warrant. >> Second. All right. Anything else? All
those in favor made the motion correctly. >> I'm usually the one making it the wrong time. >> Uh, go ahead. >> Uh, article 12 moves um 367,000 from storm water retained earnings to fund a
storm water capacity study and catch basin repair report. This is a capital item, but it's funded through retained earnings in the stormwater fund. This will put the storm water retained earning balance below policy level. I had talked to you all about this when I presented the capital
plan. Um, and there was seemed to be a consensus on comfort level with that dipping below, >> but the plan is to get it back up. Yeah, we have we have a theory in place. >> Anything from finance on this? A motion to move article 12 to the
warrant. Did I do that too quick? >> That was You got that one wrong. >> Gotcha. >> Second. >> Um, anything further? All those in favor? >> 13 is your standing district improvement
financing article. Shows up every year. This is an example of some money we spent where it did become a net funding for the town or positive funding eventually. >> Um, all right. Anything from finance on
this one? Okay. All right. Shel, I'm going to give you >> now the pressure's on. I motion make a motion to move article 13 to the warrant. >> Perfect. >> Second. >> Um, anything else? All those in favor? Uh 14 um
uh moves money from free cash to the ambulance capital account. Uh this is a new one for us uh as a result of department of revenue. Um >> changes in statute. >> Yeah, thank you. You're nicer than I would have been. Um uh and so we will
need to do this now annually unless we have a different mechanism for um the ambulance fund in the future. But uh this is money that was due for the ambulance account. We just it had to flow to free cash. So it's just moving it from one bucket to the correct
bucket. >> Uh okay. Any compliance? >> Uh the fire chief thanks you in advance. Everybody does. >> Okay. >> I'll move to move article 14 onto the warrant. >> Second.
>> Anything further? All those in favor. >> And uh 15 and 16 I will defer to Ian on. He had been working closely with bond council on this one. >> Yeah. >> Thanks, Lynn. So, um, articles 15, article 15 represents, uh, water bonds,
uh, water unexpected bond proceeds, um, that need to be repropriated for a new water main project that was approved at the last TA meeting. Um what we have the ability to do is um the TPW director,
the um basis manager and myself review the capital status of projects to see if there are any projects that are complete and still have unexpected bonds. Um when the bond proceeds are still outstanding, we have the ability to reappropriate
these for equal longer term projects. This article and the next article represent those. Uh, so I I should ask this last time came up. I know when the Farmington water manes were done, um, but which was fairly recently, how are some of these,
uh, how old are they? >> I have a schedule. Um, I can pull that up. Uh, just give me one second. But some of these are some of these are really old. I can tell you, for example, the um >> like the Elmwood Drive sewer, that's at least 10 years old, if not longer. So,
some of these are are really old. >> Yeah. >> Um, a big credit to Ian, the accounting team in DPW. They have gone through with a fine tooth comb to close out capital projects that did not need to be carrying any sort of balance anymore,
which is why you see some of these numbers, you know, $119. I mean, they they really did the due diligence to go through that list. And a lot of these predate every single person that was in that meeting. >> Yeah. So, uh, your question, Josh, some of these are from 2012, 2016, 2018.
Um, some are from 2020, 2021. So, there's a very very different years for this, but some are some are older than others. >> And just on May was talking about before, we should keep an eye on things like this to make sure they're not sitting.
>> Yeah. Um because I for between Farmington and Birch Road that's >> sometimes $400,000 >> it's a matter of trying to find a good borrowing to put these two because the problem that um a lot of these capital
projects have is they're required to be equal or longer terms and a lot of times it's the or longer piece that we're looking for. So if projects are, you know, a 15 or 20 year borrowing, sometimes there's that mismatch of we have prior borrowings that we can't use
those funds for. So we're looking for the best use of the funds available. >> Okay, that makes sense. >> All right. Thank you. Anything from finance on this? >> I make a motion to move article 15 to the warrant. >> Second.
>> Any further? All those in favor? 16 >> 16 is the same thing. This is specifically for um sewer projects. So these are unexpected unexpended bond proceeds that need to be reappropriated
for an equal or longerterm borrowing. >> Okay. >> Any motion on this one? >> Make a motion to move article 16 to the warrant. Second. >> Anything further? All those in favor?
>> 17 is one that Ian worked with, um, Chief Riggney on. So, I will let Ian take this one as well. >> Thanks, Lyn. So, uh, this article 17 is to resend the borrowing authorization for the fire truck. Um, if you remember from our May 2023 annual town meeting,
um, we needed a borrowing authorization uh, for the fire truck. This was intended to appropriate the funding for the truck at the time as it was required as part of our contract to have something in place to build the truck. There's a long lead time on this and
I've spoken with Chief Riggney and this will be um provided to us this summer. So, it's very excited to get this new fire truck in and with the appropriation from this year's capital account, the 150,000, we will have the funds available to pay for this without a
borrowing. So this rescends that borrowing, >> right? >> Nice. >> Okay. Have a motion. >> I make a motion to move article 17 to the warrant. >> Second.
>> Any further on this? All those in favor? >> Do you want to do 18 and 19? >> Yeah, that'd be great. Uh 18 and 19 are revolving fund reauthorizations that you need to do annually. Uh the first one is for the council on aging and the second one is for the parks and recck
department um town athletic field signage revolving fund which uh funds go towards uh athletic field maintenance. >> I know the 250 is fine for the athletic field signage. Um have Jim had us asked
us to raise the council on aging fund a while back. Is is this the right amount? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Take a couple motions. >> I I'll move uh I'll move to move articles 18 and 19 on the on the town one.
>> Second. >> Any further? All those in favor? Uh 20 through 25 our um community preservation act articles. >> Okay, we can so we can move those on in
mass. >> You can you you actually don't you can't not >> Yeah, we can't um go ahead. Yeah, I I'll move to uh move articles 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 25 onto the town board. >> Second.
>> Anything further? All those in favor? >> I think that >> that's the end of the financial >> finance. Yep. >> Okay. Can I have a move to Are we a move to adjurnn or move to close? >> Are are we closing? >> We're closing here and moving the other
a recess. We're recessing, right? >> Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you guys. And I apologize if we were to question him, but this was very helpful. >> This was fantastic. >> Makes us feel like we have some value. >> No. Yeah. And I want to say too that you know I think um like especially with the
fiber project because I took up so much uh time today. It's like we want to get this right like I said uh to you earlier. So you know your engagement, your thoughts, all of this to make this better um you know is welcome and would love to hear more. Well, I guess that's my offer to you is that
I do believe that there are ways that this absolutely makes sense and I think the finance committee is happy to help model out different things if you want to be able to show stuff. So, please utilize us in that way. We can make the model better and tighter, but we can also help you say there's different ways
we can approach this and see if that helps you tell your message. Right. >> Y thank you. Yeah, we really truly appreciate the time you all put in and coming to our meetings and uh schooling us. We we appreciate it.
>> Okay, so Mora, you know what to do. >> Yeah, I I um uh I move we uh recess. >> Second. >> All in favor? Thank you guys. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Did it too last in that spot.
Uh do you want me to wait or do you want me to keep going? >> Uh I think keep going. >> Okay. Article 26 uh removes the Long Meadow Building Demolition Committee. >> Um and consolidates this under the historical commission which uh had been the original intent when the bylaw was
put forward in 2006, but was amended on the floor of town meeting to uh create this separate building demolition committee. um we have not had um luck filling those positions partly due to the fact that that group does not have a lot on their plate to actually have to
meet for. So um it definitely lines up better with um falling under historical commission. >> Okay. Motion on this. >> Yeah. I'll move to move article 26 onto the town warrant. >> Second.
>> Any further? All those in favor? Okay. >> And 27 um um has a is one uh the way the bylaw was written was um does not allow consecutive terms. You know, you term
out and it has become problematic and so um this would remove that provision and >> and we we don't know why this was in there right? >> We don't. >> Yeah. Um, any motion on this? >> I'll move to move article 27 onto the
town warrant. >> Second. Sorry. >> Jeez commercial. >> Um, >> all right. Any further on this? All those in favor? >> Okay. Uh, 28 is the snow removal one. >> Um, I I can go through this one a little
bit. So, I I did a lot of work on changing this around. I uh talked to my personal legal counsel uh Julie Morgan who uh has very strong feelings on sidewalk clearing and I changed what I really changed was the definitions were
really had uh rules in them and so I made them definitions and then uh changed the biggest thing I changed was how the violations worked. Uh so it was snow or ice occurren or occurrence was used in two different ways. So a snow
ice occurrence now is snowfall that reaches one inch or any ice and it concludes after 24 hours and uh so and then it it said in the rules down below first occurrence second occurrence. So
it's a little confusing. So the way I I think I've written this now is um for each snow or ice occurrence there's a written warning for the first uh if Code enforcement goes to a house, they can give a written warning after 24 hours,
48 hours, they can give a $50 fine and 150 150 after 24 hours. >> Is it the fine is now 100 or is it 50 plus 100? And I saw there will not be cumulative. So, I didn't I Is it basically one fine and it just increases
>> or you get a fine a second time and then a 50 then 100 in addition to that then 150 in addition to that >> or is it just one fine? >> Uh that's covered in number three. >> Oh, sorry. >> No, that's right. I had to look for it because I couldn't remember what I wrote. Uh the fines after any given snow or ice occurrence shall not be
cumulative except for D4 below. So that may be if it goes beyond 120 hours. So after five days or n or 96 hours if it's a second time in one
winter. Um it may be cumulative $50 fines. So basically if if it goes two weeks after a storm, there may be 150 plus $50 every day. This also gives the code enforcement discretion. So if they go to somebody's house and they
say, "I was out of town or I was sick." something like that. Code enforcement can can wave that. >> Good question. >> So, it's one fine basically first it first time you've done something wrong, the fine goes from 50 to 100 to 150, but it's one fine,
>> right? So, it's essentially $50 a day. >> Sure. >> Yeah, that's right. >> But then, but after 3 days, then it continue can have $5 >> or $50 after. So, um I if anybody I know we had a lot of amendments a shorter
discussion. >> Yeah. And there was amendments on the floor which are fine. They're just hard to follow. And I remember I could not see little TV. I guess it's not little but it was little to to us as we all age speaking for myself. But uh hopefully this will um this will alleviate a lot
of the concerns. >> Okay. >> Thanks for working on that. >> Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. Um, I will move to move article 28 onto the floor. >> Second. >> All right. Anything further? All those in favor. >> All right. Uh, Lyn
>> uh 29 um li uh prohibits um cryptocurrency automatic teller machines. We talked about this at the last meeting. It was a request of the Long Meadow Police Department. It has also been reviewed by town council and we're seeing a lot of other communities
adopt similar bylaws. >> Okay. >> Okay. Seems great. >> I'll move to move article 29 onto the warrant second. >> Any further? All those in favor. And 30 is a planning board one that
they've been working on um uh cleaning up some language and uh now removing uh or making it very clear that signs shall not contain any commercial message or symbol in any uh traffic sign like on a traffic
sign. >> Was this uh something the planning board brought forth themselves? >> I believe so. I think it's one that was kind of lowhanging fruit to >> on the list of ones to be cleaned up. >> Okay, >> I'll move to move article 30 onto the town warrant.
>> Second. >> All right. Uh, anything further? All those in favor. >> Right. >> Do we need to move the next two onto the war? They're on. >> Okay.
>> All right. So, we are done. Okay. Okay. Um, >> beta group. >> Thank you to the rest of the board members for your hard work on that. Uh, this was an interesting warrant cycle,
>> but I think we all did a good job. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Who do Who do we have speaking? >> Uh, you can bring them both in. Yes. And he was up at the top. >> Sean
>> and Anthony. >> Sean, can you hear us? Okay. >> Can you guys hear me? >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> And Peggy, you got to move in Anthony as well. >> You guys hear me? >> Anthony, can you hear me? >> Yes. Can you hear us? >> I can. >> Perfect.
>> Can you promote Tony Garrow and Tito Sanchez? Yeah, he's coming in right now. >> He's in. Cheito is also in. >> They have they have a separate um slide show. Hopefully they can they can put up this more accurate than this one. >> Okay. The one in the agenda is not the
one we want. >> Yeah, there was a an error in it we fixed. >> Okay. Um can you let who who needs to share their screen? >> I'm sharing. >> No, they need to share. >> Yes, you can. You can stop. I'll be I'll be sharing my screen.
>> Okay. So, you can stop sharing >> that red button. >> Yep. And then uh and I've reached the limit of my Zoom knowledge. >> So, we need Tito to to share. They should be able to just share out, right?
Oh, there we go. Allow. Hang on. Yep. All right, Tito, you should be good now. >> All righty. Thank you, >> Tito. I don't see any uh Yukon attire on. >> Not yet. >> Something going on with them?
>> Yeah, a little game might be going on right now. Bear with me for one second here. >> Yeah. Are you able to see the presentation? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yeah, I can see you, Tito. >> Ah, perfect. Very good. >> So, I'm Tito Sanchez. I'm a GIS manager
at Beta Group, Inc. Um, along with me today is uh Anthony Garrow. Um I'm going to let Anthony introduce himself and uh we'll go from there. >> Yeah. Hi everyone. Good evening. Um thank you for inviting us on tonight to give you an update on the pavement
management program. Uh my name is Anthony Garrow. I'm senior vice president at Beta. I head up the uh geospatial asset management division. Um and Tito is um works with me every day and um we have a team of 15 people just
doing GIS and asset management across uh New England. So really happy to be working with Long Meadow and and Sean on on your pavement management program. Sean, did you want me to just go right in? >> Yeah, feel free to go ahead.
>> Okay. All right. All right, Cheto, you can go. Um Oh, thank you. I'm actually going to be looking at another PowerPoint because my eyesight's pretty bad. But um so again, benefits of pavement management. So the idea of developing a pavement management
program, there's several opportunities to utilize the data. Uh you guys were talking a lot tonight. It's been a great meeting um listening to all the um items on your agenda, but you know, first and foremost is protecting your roadway
infrastructure. big investment managed by the community, millions of dollars um every year going into maintaining your roads. Um the information that's developed provides the ability to plan ahead. Um we've deployed a um a
GIS-based program that allows you to be predictive. um allows you to develop capital improvement plans and I ideally you want to identify the appropriate treatment at the right time and that's really the the focus of payment management. Um and I'll
uh you know the other thing here you know we always talk about proactive versus reactive and this plan that we've developed is really it's a guide. So um there's still you still have the the subjective nature of it although we did use AI to collect the information but
the idea is to allow you to have a program that allows you to be predictive um the best that you can using the tools that we've provided. Next slide you uh you cannot talk pavement management
without presenting a pavement deterioration curve or PL or payment planning curve. Um, so the program that we've developed is really falls along the baseline data that's collected, but
every day the pavements that you're in, you can see through the course of the winter that we've had three stall cycles. Um, so this winter was extremely severe. So it was great timing in having the program developed last fall and collecting your data, getting new
condition information. Um but you know the main thing here is by collecting the condition information it's providing you with an understanding of your realway network. Um the information collected through an AI process um is not subjective. Um it's
consistent across the community. Um it's going to provide the tools for identifying different um scores and repair strategies, establishing estimated costs of improvements, and ultimately develop probably most importantly is developing
a prioritized plan that using the empirical data that was provided. But again, the deterioration curve really everything revolves around the deterioration curve um and really serves as the lynch pin for all the decisions that are being made.
typical five-step process. Um we've worked with over 100 communities across New England. Uh this is a very typical approach that we take. Uh the first step in the process is to set up the system which includes GIS mapping. This is our
our second time inspecting roads in town. So we already had a database and GIS mapping in place. So basically as part of this process we wanted to confirm the information. You may have taken on some new roads. Uh we want to confirm it against the U mass DOT data
that's also readily available and that it's important to do that as that is what dictates your chapter 90 um aotment. Uh step two collecting all the information inspecting the roads. This is the most time consuming and really
the biggest cost in the project and also the most important. uh analyzing that information that's been collected, qualifying the data. We do have a um lead inspector and engineer who reviews all the information. The AI is is very
good but not perfect. Uh next step in the process after analyzing the information and confirming it is to start working on prioritization of the roadways, developing a capital improvement plan. Um looking at multiple years, looking at budget budget numbers
that are available and also forecasting out the improvements and what they how those would improve the roadway network. The final step in the process is really an iterative process where on an annual basis you want to maintain the program. Um you've made an investment in your
program by hiring beta and developing the system. So it's very important that on an annual basis or even more frequent um update the information as improvements are made. So the program focused on the town accepted roadways. uh little over 94
miles of roadways were inspected. Uh there are a little over a 100 miles of roadway in town uh make up of town accepted, private, and state roadways. Uh but the focus of the project was the 94.2 mi of roadway that are considered
town accepted. So the the payment improvement program focused on using a LAR based technology. Um AI technology is really you know in the forefront now. Uh we've been looking very closely at a wide range of vendors
that we partner with. Um we've had very good success working with our vendor uh Civil uh who provides a LAR and also uh image imagery that's collected. So as part of the data capture process that we completed in the fall of last year, you
can see that our data collection vehicle had a LAR sensor fixed to the roof. It also had a 360 camera similar to what you would see u with Google Maps and also a forward- facing camera and rearfacing camera. Um so a great deal of
data was collected um and through that process the 0 to 100 condition scores are established um and then we do a quality control program like I mentioned before the data comes forward to us um in a GIS format
and we have our um QAQC personnel review the information um what we're seeing now is typically around 80% of the data um is typically spot on and about 15 to 20% or so needs to be um modified.
Here's some examples across the community. So again, every roadway was scored 0 to 100. Um we have um imagery every 20 ft. So within the program that we've deployed to Shawn, you can see these images every 20 feet within the
platform. So these are just representative examples. Emerson Road recently completed beautiful roadway uh scores 100 Nwood Circle RSR 90 another roadway different types of um classifications or importance to the
road to the community but two very good examples of roads in good condition. U next slide showing roads in fair condition. So now we're following a little further down the curve getting closer to the midpoint. So Bliss Road scored a 74. you can start to see some
longitudinal transverse cracking starting to come through. Uh Frank Smith Road scored a 60 and you can see more more distresses starting to appear um in that image. And then you get into roadways that are in port condition and these are more
toward the bottom of the curve and you can see where you have um a host of different distresses, patching, potholes, longitudinal cracking, alligator cracking, edge cracking. So, um, cracking that you would typically see on a roadway that's in in poor
condition. So, the information that was developed again the zero each road scored 0 to 100. And what this chart is showing um different repair bands that were established to help with planning road improvements. So, starting at the top of
the curve here, um, no maintenance required, typically roadways that score 90 to 100. So those are in very good condition. Um, typically nothing's planned for the for those roads that are in that 90 to 100 range. However, you got to remember that the predictive
model within the software is going to start to move that that roadway that scoring in 92 down the curve. So it's going to then fall into routine maintenance, uh, which would be 80 to 92. Again, roads in still in very good condition. Um, typically roadways in
that range, you're looking at crack se ceiling or fog ceiling or some type of rejuvenator. Um, you want to extend the life of roadways in that category. Um, now moving down into preventative maintenance, 65 to 80 roads in fair condition, and that's where you can
consider surface treatments such as crack seal, um, I'm sorry, chip seal, cape seal, and shimon overlays. So the idea here is to capture these roads that are still in, you know, routine maintenance and preventative maintenance before they get into the rehab rehab
category. This is when it's going to become more uh a high higher cost repair. Um when you get into poor condition and that's when you're getting into milling overlays, cold and place recycling, leveling overlays, reclamation, and reconstruction. So there's a lot of different options
available. um again higher price as you go down the curve per cost per square yard. So here's a breakdown um of your information. So um good news is your roads are currently scoring uh 72.57
which is which is a good score. um the breakdown of the information um from the repair band analysis. You have um right now you can look at the pie chart and you have right now about 39 or 40 miles of roadway that fall in that category
about 43% of your roads. Preventative maintenance almost 17 miles which makes up about just under 20%. routine maintenance 19 miles of roadway and that's exactly 20% and then your no maintenance required at this time you
have 17 1.5 miles about almost again 20%. So the distribution really of your current repairs is a nice balance. So it gives you an opportunity to really develop an effective program where you can assign a wide range of repairs and
again your overall network score 72.6. six um on average we see anywhere from say 67 to 74 across um New England. It really varies based on the density or you know the nature of the community
whether you're suburban, rural or urban. I would consider Long Meadow be more suburban in nature. Um we do see scores um in the high 50s. Uh we do have a few towns that we're working with that are above 85, but those are few and far
between. Uh this is a a map depict depicting the conditions across the community. As I mentioned before, everything is set up in a GIS environment. So it allows you to thematically map your roadway conditions. This is showing again those repair bands that I just described and
also the exact scores uh for each roadway segment. Keto, I'm gonna ask you to to jump in and talk a little bit about the technology that we're providing to the town. >> Absolutely. Can everybody hear me? Okay. >> Good. Fantastic. So, similar similar to
the map that we previously saw, um, that was a PDF version. The map that you're seeing here >> is a web-based online version that's interactive as well. So, you're able to zoom in and out, uh, look at the different roadways. um the pie chart on the left hand side here in the lower
lower leftand corner is interactive. So as you click on each of the segments or pieces of the pie um only those roads uh will show up. So if you click on the red segment all the red roads will show up which gives you more details as to what's going on um on those roadways. At
the bottom here we've got a chart that gives you additional information per roadway. Again it's all interactive. You're able to select a road and only that line for that road would show up. Um, on the right hand side, we also have a roadway paving history by year. Uh, Sean was nice enough to give us all of
the paving history dating back to 2021. And what this allows you to do is to view trends and the roadway repairs. So, as you select on specific roads, not only will it give you the uh condition of the road, but it will also give you the paving history for that road, so you can go back and see what was done to
that particular road. Again, being interactive, the more you zoom in, um, the more information you start to see. So, here you start to notice that the closer you get to the roads, these dots, uh begin to appear. And uh as Tony alluded to before, uh we're taking
imagery at every 20 ft. And that's represented here by the dots that you're seeing on the screen. As you click on one of these dots, uh the representative photo for that dot will show up on the um on the little panel here with the uh the image that you're seeing. Now, the nice thing about this, again, it's a
system of record. uh say 10 years from now if you wanted to look at this information um you are able to archive this data so you can have it with you and you're able to see the condition of the road um as it was of the time of inspection I just want to add to on that program
it's it's a live system so um as things move forward whether you update it to reflect improvements that you just made over the course of the year Or also too, if you just open it, say in June, you're going to see
potentially that that 72.57 um could be lower um if unless you've made improvements between now and in June. So, it's a live program. Uh new system that we're deploying to uh the town also allows you to track, edit, and
also interact with the capital plan um all in the web-based program. So really cool technology that Tito and his team have have put together for us and really excited about it. How the like I'm anxious to see Shawn's feedback and feedback from Shawn as he starts to use it.
>> Absolutely. And the other part of all this too is that you are able to integrate other assets. I noticed here that we've got a tab specifically geared towards parking lots. Um we are able to integrate other assets like I said like signs, um pavement markings if that's data that you already have. uh and then
other utilities as well. So it allows you to generate a holistic capital improvement plan where you know you're planning not just for the roads but anything that's associated with it though again uh utilities um uh signs things of that nature that will help you
sidewalks curb ramps as well uh that'll help you generate a more holistic uh capital improvement plan at the end. >> Thanks Tito. Um, so what this slide now is showing, like Tito mentioned, the system allows you to track improvements
over time. Um, so dating back to 2021, you can see that there's a little over 17 miles of improvements that were made. Um, very s, you know, very balanced um, on an annual basis. You can see the consistency on the the repairs.
One thing I do want like to note is that the the miles of road do not include crack sealing. Um, so crack sealing is really more of a routine maintenance um category and uh it's typically tracked separately from the the major repairs that you see here on the map. So I love
to see thematic maps. You're being able to see the information um graphically by year also helps you start to develop a plan of attack for the next three five years. Um so eventually you're going to see this map filling in as eventually um
all or most of the community roadways in the town will get covered u by some type of an improvement over the next 15 years. So the bond referendum um really impressed with the outcome of that program. So this map here is showing um
in orange the improvements that were made um last year and into this year. Um primarily mil and overlay type improvements. So again 4.7 miles of roadway improvements were made approximately $7 million was spent and
now then the resultant network RSR is a 72.57. Now, that's an increase of three points from the baseline RSR that was established back in the fall when we did the the reinspection. So, that's a lot
of work to accomplish in a short period of time and to increase the number by by one or two points um annually is is that that is really significant. Um again, that's a live program. So, roadways deteriorate as you're improving roads
scores are going down. So to be able to pick up three points in that short period of time um is impressive that um on the town's behalf. >> Could I interrupt Tony for one second? >> Yeah. >> I just wanted to follow up. One of the reasons we brought Beta back so quick
after our first um our first time we did this was because of the volume of work that you guys have have done. And in addition to the 5.1 million we did for the bond last year, we also paved back another like a million over a million
for um for chapter 90 and an additional allocation plus old chapter 90. So it's a little bit below seven of six and a half million. But because amount of work that that we did with the paving as well as the stick project, this up project and the western drive project, we felt
it was important to have data come back and just update the information so we could we could really um I want to additionally say that the work uh with that bond was just in terms of timing because if we had got to do the same amount of work right now with the
current oil prices, I think we would have gotten for less work done. So just want to high with that and I think it's put the temp posture the the credit of the board for moving that project forward.
>> Okay, thank you. Okay, next slide um which I like I like to call the money slide. This one is is depicting or forecasting our estimated budget numbers to maintain your roadways
at the current level which you can see the cost is 1.35 million. So you've invested this money. You have a current score of 72.57 and you want to keep your momentum going. You want to set more goals. You
want to continue to see that our overall RSR score continue to go up. Um so these are some goals that we've established through the modeling program. Uh we can we can conduct other models as well to look at other scenarios. This happens to be one one example that I would consider
really a balanced um program looking forward. Uh but there's other scenarios that we can run for Shawn if we're asked to do that. But again 1.35 to maintain your current score. So planning and prioritization this is
really you know the most important part of any pavement management program. You know, we presented the findings of the recent um re-evaluation of the roads um the impact that the referendum had on the overall network score and you can
see you know the improvement to the roadways across the community and you know it's important to be consistent in in the approach and you know I like to say trust the process and be patient and you're going to continually see your
roads to improve um over time. But in order to see those roadways improving over time, you really need to establish, you know, a wellplanned multi-year uh program that's using the information, but it also needs to take into account,
Tito, can you go to the next slide? It also needs to take into account other factors. Um so you have the roadway condition scores, the recommended improvements, but you also have the roadway functional classification which are arterial roads, collector roads,
local roads, culde-sacs, traffic volumes along those roadways come into play. Um the cost of repairs, the life years added to a particular roadway plan, subsurface utilities, sidewalks and curb
ramps. All of these components come into play when you are developing your capital improvement plan. And it's just it's very prudent to make sure that you're not just looking at the roadway condition, but you're also looking at the underground utilities and also your
ADA requirements as you move ahead. So, the proposed plan, um, we're looking at a five-year plan and starting in 2026. And you can see the breakout of the plan with the the estimated repairs.
So another about five and a half miles are programmed for 2026. Little over $6 million. And then you can see the numbers go down where now we're focused more on maintaining the road scores in 2027, 2028, and 2029. But it,
you know, it's important to note that to continually to maintain these roads at that high level of service that all the, you know, community and stakeholders expect, you need to continually provide funding that's beyond uh chapter 90
funding. Um, continue to consider bonds or other appropriations. Uh, next slide, too. And uh final slide this concluding remarks. Um comprehensive inventory of
information in a you know userfriendly environment that you can analyze use for planning and tracking conditions. Um designed to help better manage your dollars that you do have available. And then like I mentioned previously, uh the system's capable assessing different
types of programs based on different budget scenarios, repair types, and ultimately we want to maximize the life cycle um of your roadways across the town. So with that, happy to take um any questions you may have.
>> Josh, can I ask one? >> Yeah, go ahead. Andrew, >> thanks for this presentation. It's very interesting. I love the maps. I I'm a little I just want to know what the takeaway is because on one hand uh you're I think you said the network RSR of 72 is actually not bad but I'm
looking at this and I say wow 43% of our roads are in rehabilitation status and is that good? How are we doing compared to other towns? I guess what's your assessment with these figures? I didn't get the um kind of the takeaway that
we're doing well or we're mediocre or we're in trouble. >> No, I think right I think right now you're in you're in a good position. So I say you're doing well and but you're at that point now where you want to continue you want to continue with the
process, continue to to have an organized plan, continue to budget for roadway improvements on an annual basis. do not just rely on chapter 90 funds cuz then you're going to start to find more roads, get into that rehabilitation uh
band. So that the idea is to try to extend the life of roads, keep them out of that band um if we can. But every community has roadways that are in, you know, poor condition. Um, it's again it comes down to how you use the data,
synchronize your work with underground utilities, other infrastructure projects that are taking place because you do have a lot of other improvements that are ongoing um throughout the community, complete streets projects, you know, other other projects that can help fund
roadway improvements. Uh, but it's important to make sure you leverage all those funding opportunities to keep things moving along. So, do you feel like >> and really to answer your question, I think you're >> you're definitely sounding a little more optimistic and I'm glad for that. Um, but so, you know, rehabilitation status
is poor condition. 43% of our roads are in that. Is that not as uh are you a little more sanguine about that than than those words mean to you? Like, um we're actually above average, would you say, for towns like ours? Like is it not
that bad to be in poor condition >> for 43% of our roads? >> Uh well, yeah, you don't you want to try to avoid having any roadway really in poor condition, >> but again, you've got the entire road. You can't just get every roadway up to 100, >> right?
>> Um you know, you just it's not possible. So that that's why having this information and yes you do have roads in that in that band but the idea now is to capture those roads get those on the program trust the process so you can continually upgrade those roads that are
in poor condition but also maintain the roads that are in good condition so because you don't want to continually see roads falling down into that category then it's then you're in trouble but right now I'd say with the balance of your roads based on the scores
right now you're at a really good point where you can really go in the right direction and really start to see your score even go up higher. >> So you'd say we're above average. Would you say that? Is that accurate? >> I'd say well again the sweet spot, you know, 67 to 74 is what we typically see.
We do, you know, we do see some in, you know, high 70s, low 80s, and then some as low as 58, 62. Um, but right now I'd say you're in that 67 to 74 range, which is fairly, you know typical.
>> Thank you. >> The uh 80 is a pretty high score, so we're not really looking. No one's going to be 100. So, >> yeah, >> if you get >> 80 is very hard to get to. >> So, I mean, we went from the 60s to 70s. At least we're moving in the right direction. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah, that needle's definitely it's definitely turning. um you know in the program uh that Tito described will provide Sean with that needle. It's going to show this is where we are. This is where we were in the fall and now the needle's turn and we
want to see that needle continually go toward, you know, towards 75. >> No, thank you. It's uh good to know that our big swing last year made a difference. Uh but it is looks like it's going to cost us a lot of money to just keep the status quo. very hard to move
continue moving up. Um, so Sean and our finance team, we're hoping you can uh be creative and and use this information wisely. Anything else from the rest of the board? >> No. Okay. Uh Sean, anything from you
before we move on? >> No. Thank you guys. >> All right. Thank you to Tony and Tito. We appreciate you coming in and uh presenting this information and we will uh have you back sometime. >> Thank you. >> All right. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you.
>> Have a good evening. >> You as well. >> Okay. Anything on correspondence? No. >> Lynn. >> Okay. I'll be quick. Um perfect segue. Uh notices about active construction
projects. We uh currently have a bunch underway. Route 5 and Converse, the L project, Western Drive water main and sewer rehab, and Bliss Park playground improvements. There's going to be traffic impacts some of these areas during construction hours. Um, you can expect delays, one-way traffic,
alternating um route signs. Uh, and all of this information can be now found on the active construction projects page at the DPW. You can get that get there by long meadow.gov of and we'll continually update that with um project updates.
Eversource Gas is working on um a couple areas of town. Uh NPL construction has been in the area of Laurel and Converse Street. Uh and um um the Converse and Flor Forest Glenn. Um precise paving will be in the area of
Long Meadow Street from the state line to Lawnwood covering up the area that NPL had fixed last week. Um, and this is for final trench repairs and um, it's caused some some traffic headaches, but um, necessary work. Uh, Fanny 7's plaque
dedication 20 I'm sorry, two thou 2026 marks the 75th anniversary of the Fanny Stebins Wildlife Refuge. The Friends of Fanny Stubbins board plans to hold multiple events this year to commemorate the anniversary, including special walks in the refuge, lectures at the library,
and among other celebrations. Uh to launch the 75th celebrations, there will be an official dedication of the Stebon Stone plaque at the West Trail parking lot on April 15th at 3:00 with a rain date of the 16th at 3:00. So, just as a reminder, this was the plaque that had
been on the wall in the old meeting room at Town Hall. Uh and so now it's found its home in the actual refuge and they're um holding a ceremony to mark that occasion and you're all invited to attend. Um the wolf swamp vestable
vestibule project uh has um gone out to bid and the low bidder was Inglewood Development Corporation in the amount of 220,000 uh which is good because we had that money available to fund the project. So it didn't come in higher than we um had funds available for. Work is expected to
start to start when June when school gets out June 24th with a substantial completion date of August 16th. Uh in the report I go into detail on the work that's happening, but this was a safety improvement that had been in several years of capital plans. So it's good to
see that uh we'll be able to make this project um complete this summer. Happy to answer any questions that you have. >> Uh seeing none. Just want to add that also saw uh sidewalk work being done.
>> Yes. >> Oh, I did not know um Oh, I should have asked when Sean was on. One of the trees that supposed to come down has >> Yeah, I noticed >> post on it. >> Yeah. >> Do we >> One of the trees that was supposed to come down where
>> by the Route Five project. >> I I thought it was already down. No, >> there's one. There's two supposed to come down. One is down. The other one's not. >> Has posts on it. the protective >> Oh, I'll follow up on that. >> Okay, >> I noticed that, too. >> Just let the construction equipment take it down.
>> There might be some people wouldn't want that. Um, okay. Anything else? All right. Uh, moving on to old business. We have the minutes. >> I will move to approve the March 23rd, 2026 select board meeting minutes. >> Second.
>> Any further? All those in favor? Okay, Lyn, go ahead. Okay. Um, so you've previously received uh presentations on the FY2027 budget and the FY2027 capital plan. Um, this is
now just the formal vote on both to accept them. Once you do, um, I mean, you obviously have the opportunity to amend anything you want to, but once you take the vote, they become your budget and your capital plan, and then we will enter that into
the warrant. Okay. Uh, any discussion on this before we move on to motions? And I know we've covered these a couple times so far. >> All right. Uh, seeing none, take a motion. >> Um, so is the wording on this like vote
to approve the capital plan and budget? >> Yeah. Okay. uh vote to approve the FY27. Oh, sorry. I move to uh approve the FY2027 uh budget and capital plan as attached to the uh tonight's agenda.
>> Second. >> All right. Anything further? Seeing nothing. All those in favor? >> Okay. >> And Lyn, what is the um >> Now you just um actually set and close the warrant. Is there a particular language?
>> Um, just that you would move to set and close the annual town meeting warrant for May 12th um, 2026. That means nothing else can be added. >> Or removed. >> I will move to set and close the May 12th, 2026 annual town meeting warrant. Second.
>> Anything further? Seeing nothing. All those in favor. And uh nothing no action on this, but we have we've already canceled the next meeting and the warrant info session memo uh just explaining what we're doing is on the agenda.
Um all right, moving on to new business. Uh poor Barry's been waiting for us on parks and recck after school and daycare fees. Yeah, you okay? >> I can. Thank you. Can you all hear me?
>> Yes, we can. Thank you. >> All right. Good evening. Thank you very much for putting me on your very busy agenda. I will be as brief as possible. As you can see from the spreadsheet, which is a catalog of all of our programs, most of
them you've approved the fees for. There's five that are either new programs or increases that I would like to present to you for your approval. The first is the Aqua Zumba class. Um, that's a new program that was added to
our program catalog basically in response to the surveys that we did, the program surveys after the season. Um, and it's this program initiative is reflecting our continued commitment to meeting community needs within the
aquatic programming. The next two, if Peggy's willing to scroll down, I can lump together. It is the school age and the daycare programs. Those are both existing programs and if approved, these programs will be implemented in the
fall. The increases would be implemented in the fall. However, announced with pre-registration in early May. So, if you decide to approve and you vote at your next meeting, parks and recreation would um announce that to parents shortly after that. We don't necessarily
like to increase our program fees. Um these are pretty modest increases. Daycare is a 3% increase and school age is a 2%. Primarily to address cola increases, step increases within both programs. The daycare supports eight
full-time staff, multiple um part-time staff, school age, one full-time staff, and a multitude of part-time staff. Um and then with school age, it also addresses the slight increase in transportation.
The next two are one actually the acting and scene study is a new program. It's it was presented and designed to meet our 20 FY26 GFOA goal of expanding our teen programs. So it's a nice program
and it's new to our catalog. And the last proposal is for the mad science program. That's an existing program that's vendor run as opposed to staff run and they are proposing increases to address their rising expenses such as
their staff costs. Um all the updates are aligned with um fiscal sustainability and sound business practice and I ask you for your approval to move forward with these increases.
>> Thank you Barry. These all seem uh very reasonable to me. Just a question on the afterchool and before school programs. Uh as you said, they are they're modest increases, but if somebody is unable to handle those, do we have any is there
financial aid or any considerations for people? >> We do. We do have a mechanism for financial aid. It's the Trillley Scholarship Fund. So, anyone can apply um as long as they are a Long Meadow resident and we utilize the um the
federal poverty standards, the guidelines. So, we have probably a couple dozen residents currently in the program. Most of them are interested in summer programs, but it would allow them um in reductions in those fees.
>> Great. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Uh we have a motion to approve the proposed fee and program changes. So moved.
>> Second. >> All right. Anything further? All those in favor? All right. Thank you very appreciate you waiting. >> Thank you very much. >> Have a great night. >> Thank you. Have a good night. >> Thanks. >> All right. Speaking of waiting.
>> Um we'll move on to our public shade tree hearing. Okay. >> Hi everyone. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Thank you for waiting. We appreciate it. Of >> course. All right. Um why don't you go ahead.
>> Okay. And I do believe um Jean Christie, if she's not there in person, might be over Zoom as well uh from Chai Bond representing the project. >> She is here. Would you like to come up? >> Okay. Wonderful. >> How'd you know to get >> Thank you all. Um,
I'm gonna keep my camera off because I am I don't know if you could tell, but I'm under the weather, but um you're not missing much on my end, but I um thank you for having me back. Um I'm certainly providing you with another memo regarding a tree hearing that was held.
that was held on March um 26th for six trees in front of and along Williams Street in front of the middle school and a budding household in reference to the upcoming middle school redevelopment project.
As you guys know, this is not a project that came out of my department. So I just um reviewed it as a um you know the plans that were given to me, what would happen uh to the trees if the project were to move forward with the proposed
plan set. And um as we discussed the last at the last meeting regarding the ones on Route 5, we're in a similar boat. I reviewed the trees as either in direct conflict or um very near direct
conflict with upcoming construction. Um I did receive quite a few objections by many folks uh who abut this property. Um but so that resulted in my denial of their removals. Um however that doesn't
that denial issued by me doesn't necessarily reflect my opinion and based on the review of the plans and how the trees will react to construction. It's my opinion that they should be removed. Great. Thank you. Um, Jean, would you
like to introduce yourself and uh explain how the trees fit into the project? >> No problem. Uh, my name is Jean Christie. I'm a principal engineer with Tybon. Thank you for having me tonight. Um, the the six trees that are proposed to be removed are due to the roadway
widening proposed along William Street. Um, there's a couple pieces in play here. you know, the roadway widening is allowing a left turn lane into the new school facility. >> Um, part of the reason why that that that
widening is going north versus south is if you're if you recall on William Street on the south side, right at the edge of the curb line is kind of a pretty steep slope. I think it's a maybe six feet or so. So pushing the roadway, widening it southerntherly, uh would require retaining structures probably
along the entire length of the frontage of the school. Um so that's why we opted to push it northerly and and require those six trees to be removed. Um I think that's all. >> Thank you. Um I I am not uh I'm aware
that the irony of us doing this maybe not classic irony but uh of talking about removing trees right before Arbor Day proclamation. Um but I will as somebody who's familiar with the project can you tell us how many trees are being added uh on the parcel after the
project? >> Uh right. So um you know remember looking at the parcel great you can see right here the the property itself has that wide open field so there's not a lot of trees being removed inside the project. The trees that you see behind this is on William Street right?
>> Yes. >> The trees that you see there are I think are all behind where the sidewalk would be. So those are all stay. Um and then immediately behind that we are proposing additional trees before we get to our parking lot. Most of the trees added to the project are going to be along the
abuing properties to the east and the west. >> There's a lot of being done for shade >> and there's a lot and I couldn't give you the number. >> Okay. >> But a lot. >> Do we have a photo of the trees? The six trees we're talking about >> that if it's not these. >> I think we'd have to scroll a little
further down the street towards um grassy gutter or towards Laurel. >> Yeah, it's that way. It's where the new driveway is going in, right? >> Or two of them. >> I think it's like at that. So those two, Leah said, >> are they on the tree belt or uh Yeah, >> they're in the tree belt. >> Okay, thanks.
>> So nothing north of the of the um sidewalk is >> I think they're one or two because that's where the driveway is going. >> They're all on the property. The ones that are in that are need to be removed for the driveway are on >> Okay. So they're not in the tree. >> They're not under our jurisdiction.
>> Okay. >> Correct. >> I'm sorry. All six are north of the sidewalk. Not on the tree belt. All six are within the tree belt in the >> tree south of the sidewalk. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> So it's that one. It might and then there must be some behind us.
>> So if you continue up this street towards Grassy Gutter, there's um two trees, one on each side of the driveway for 458 meadow street as well, >> which is this first household right here.
>> Yes. to those as well. The curb cuts going to come in very tight up on that tree trunk and those trees both already have defects are planted too deeply are um you know seeing construction impacts from how tight the driveway is on them.
Um adding additional stress and compaction is only going to um push them further into a higher risk category. And at the end of the day, in my review as the arborist, I was considering, like we talked about last time, the um at the
end of the day, it's the risk of failure compared to the consequence of failure. And with these six trees having a slight increase of risk of failure um to varying degrees and the consequence of failure, as this is a highly trafficked school route, um that consequence is is
severe um if if a tree were to go down. So, um, that is another, you know, the main driving factor is really considering that that consequence if those were to go down. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um, any other
questions from the board? >> No. >> Okay. And we, um, I don't know if we've seen the widening project. I know I I just saw it at the planning board meeting last week. Um, but just in for those curious,
the uh I I guess we don't have a good map of it, but right in front of the school, there's a a left lane being added to the north or there'll be a turning lane that'll fit about six cars. So, it should funnel cars better onto the driveway. And there'll be a signal there.
>> There will be a signal. >> Yeah. >> So, it'll be it'll be a big change, but as somebody who I drop off my daughter there every day, it'll be it'll be welcome. Um all right.
So um we we just did this the last meeting. I don't remember. We are voting to um >> is it deny the appeal? >> Get a chance to speak here.
>> This isn't a public hearing, >> right? So that she could speak but we can't for the other side. >> Yes. She's the proponent. >> Yeah. >> I I I will allow >> I I I live >> Okay. It's not It's not a public hearing, but if you'd like, well, you
can have three minutes to speak since you waited this long. These trees these trees have been there on on near our house. The trees that you're taking down uh since the 1920s.
There is nothing there's nothing wrong with these trees. We had this hearing. The tree warden said that she had examined them and that she found some uh disease with these
trees without saying when she uh looked at these trees and what what kind of ailment they had. That's number one. Number two, in the long debate, in the long debate on this project, uh,
the Williams Middle School, the issue of taking down these trees was never brought up. The town's people and the voters at the town meeting, >> I'm going to ask you to keep on subject, please. >> I am on the subject.
I am on the subject. That's it relates directly to these trees because these trees that are on or near my property are what we're talking about here tonight. So, it's very much a part of what we're
talking about here tonight. So, the the the trees that are are being taken down here were was never considered by the voters. uh they never told the voters that there was going to be this driveway
uh that was going to happen because of and that they needed to take these trees down. What you've heard here tonight, there's nothing wrong with these trees. There's no reason for you to take those trees down.
And I can tell you, I can tell this uh board that if you continue uh uh in your plans to take down these trees, I am telling you that it's going to we'll we'll see you in court.
That's what you want to do. If that's the way you want to go, more power to you. But we'll see you in court. >> Thanks for having us. One thing I just add one thing. >> Sure. >> We've had those trees checked by your
person many years. We've always >> speak at the podium and introduce yourself please. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> I'm Carrie Cal. Um, but we had those trees. I've called the tree ward in many years. I was worried about the limbs going over. Assured me no storm was going to take it out. Those trees were
healthy. Our next door neighbor filed an appeal to this and she received a letter back and in that letter it said although the trees are healthy so I don't see the reason it's just going to destroy our property we'll have no shade trees we're going to have a line of cars in front of
us we're going to have a line of cars next to us we're going to be in the middle of a parking lot at least let us have some shade in the house if we have to there's going to be a light there I don't even know how we'll get up but I'm just saying at least if we could have a little shade left in our property tree. We're very careful about cutting down
trees. We trim trees, but we don't cut them down. But that's that's what we were told for many years. The trees are fine. So, just wanted to let that out there because she does have it in writing, too, that she said the trees were okay. >> So, well, thank you for hearing me.
>> Thank you. >> Can I ask a follow-up question of you? >> Thank you. Um, so the curb cut for the widening of the road, how close to the trees, the particular trees on their property does it come? It doesn't actually touch them or it
does. >> The back of curb is pretty close. And that's why one of the choices was to include those two trees in the removal plan because we couldn't guarantee their survival based on cutting the road back and
dropping it that six inches to put it in a curb. >> So, how pretty close? What does that mean? Feet >> feet. >> Several like >> five feet. And then what this came up at our last meeting, I know you're not the arborist, but um I guess we can ask, but
what is the harm? We did ask this the last question, but I'll ask it again. What's the harm of just seeing if they'll survive in that location? >> Would you like my response or do you want to ask? >> Yeah, either. I I think it's it's that risk that if you know we can take as
much care as possible and I think we would want to um if it does damage the tree and then you have to cut it down after the fact or if it's damaged and then falls into the road onto a property that's the risk part of it and Leah may
have a different response. >> Yeah, I think that's wonderful Jean. Thank you. And also I would like to, you know, if the trees weren't in that current fair to good condition, some of them are fair, some of them are in better condition. Um, if they weren't in
those conditions and they were in poor condition, we wouldn't even be here. They'd just be axed and wiped out. Um, you know, without any kind of hearing because it wouldn't be necessary. That's why we've gone through this process of doing the tree hearing is because, um, we don't have that mechanism to bypass
it. Um, that being said, uh, it does, like Jean said, come back to that risk. Um, as I mentioned last time, construction within that that distance of a tree, you're going to lose about half of that tree's structural rooting
system, you're losing it on the roadway side, meaning all of its anchorage on the roadway side is gone. any kind of wind tunnel coming through that street, it's very likely it will kick those trees onto the school's property over the sidewalk where pedestrians will be
um walking into and from school. So, um you know, I did outline in my memo to you all um some of the defects that I noted on the trees. Some of them have cavities, some many of them are planted too deeply. Oak trees also just are not trees that are well apt to handle road
salt. So they are already under a lot of stress. Um so adding any additional stress of removing half of a tree's root system and adding compaction is um not going to fair them very well. If I could speak once more.
Thank you. These these the two trees that you're talking about, two of the trees that you're talking about, I I I I understand the the trees near the edge of the property, but these two trees
that are the subject of this hearing are on either side of my driveway. They're far and away from the from the corner of where the Williams Middle School is going to go in. These are two
trees on either side of my driveway. There's nothing wrong with these trees. I wanted to say, is it possible to see a like a plan? Can we see that where the road comes in and where the trees are on the plan? >> Um, I'm going to
>> We may not have that right now. I wonder if we can pull up the I can send Peggy the planning board agenda. >> I have a I have a paper plan. I can jump into the Zoom meeting and share the the plan that I submitted with the
application for the tree removal. >> I can pull it up. >> I'm working on pulling it up on your end at the moment. So, should I presume that while we're waiting, his driveway is actually being shortened basically by the widening, >> right? Because of the way the widening
transition needs to start, right? Okay. So, these are the two trees in question. >> Yeah. No, >> Lyn, that's actually not I didn't find anything good in there. >> Nothing in there. They're um they didn't post their slide deck,
>> right? If you actually just go on Google Maps and type in 458 William Street. >> Yeah, this is where we were earlier. >> Yeah, if you kind of just scroll down a little bit. >> Yeah. And then just go this way because it really does show you the proximity. >> Yeah. Right here.
>> Those two. >> So the road widens like from where the camera from where the photographer is now. Is this where the road would start widening? >> Right. Start widening to the right. And that is because that right lane needs to shift over. So that when you get to the
signal, that right lane isn't in in conflict with the lane that's turning left. >> Can you get in the zoom and pull it up? >> So already the road is like 3 feet from the tree cuz you were wrenching 5T. It's already within 3 ft.
>> Correct. >> Like right there. Yeah. >> But see that's that right here is where the transition to the full where >> right >> starts. So we're not it's not from here a full 12t wide lane. It's just where the curve line starts to be relocated. >> But you see the these two trees were
never part of the plan. >> It's it's these trees. >> These trees are what the the problem was. But these tomb trees were never even in the whole debate about the school and and whether to these the
plants never came back this far and we were never told none of the town meeting members or the voters were told that these trees were going to be coming out. >> Leah, can I ask you a question? Um >> yes. >> Have we ever in this situation like you
know obviously you are planting trees every year. Could we consider if these trees come down, we plant a couple trees even on at at this gentleman's like desired location?
Absolutely. And I can say I just submitted a grant application with the state to plant 65 trees um along Bliss, Laurel, and Williams surrounding these schools um to comp encompass that. and the uh grant reviewers actually
requested to come to a site visit with me to further investigate the application um so you know we've been averaging um almost 200 tree plantings a year um we've exceeded removals with
plantings um it would be no sweat off of my back to add new trees I understand we're not putting in you know a automatically mature tree and it will take time to get large. There are faster growing species that are more a adapted to tougher environments than white oaks
and black oaks. So, it would not be an issue at all. >> I think if the board and it seems quite necessary to be quite honest based on location of these trees and what needs to happen here um that your assessment
is necessary, but I do recognize that this is an kind of an unlucky property that basically is going to have cars on two sides. And I think that if there's anything we can do to help mitigate that by planting as many trees as are
reasonably possible to help, um, we should do that. >> Of course, we'd like to be around to enjoy it. >> I'm not sure what you're >> are over a hundred years old. I see what you're saying. >> Going to be around here in 100 years.
Maybe you will will be, but not me. >> I understand. It's a very very difficult situation, sir. I'm sorry. >> My house is has taken they're going to take a section of my property down at the other the other end to do that
driveway, but it just seems unfair. I'm not complaining about that. But these two trees are on the other side of my drive and they don't have anything to do with it. They've never been inspected. There's nothing wrong with them. I just don't see it. I'm sorry.
>> I have um >> You got the >> I have something close to it. >> I'm just waiting for it to hit the inbox and it hasn't yet. I >> mean, I've lived in this town for 42 years. I've been active in town. I try
to help my town, but this >> as you can tell, we're we're not doing this lately. We're we're thinking about this. >> That's all I can ask. >> Just take it. All right. This is what the what the
proposed roadway will where the location is. Um it's not the greatest rendering to show you because this was not the intent of this rendering. Um but I think it will give you a better idea. >> Is that green what's being added or
that's >> the sidewalk. >> So where is his driveway? Can we tell? >> Right there where the red arrow is. >> Right. Yeah. Can't really see it because of the shade. >> So the green is going to be new widening.
>> The widing is really up in front of the street. >> The widings up further. Yeah, >> it's wood side. >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry. Is it clear? >> William Street on the left. >> This Williams side over here. No, this is Williams. >> Okay. >> This is the new driveway. >> Yeah.
>> So where we're talking about is right here. >> And it is being wided in there. >> That's where the widening starts. Yes. >> Yeah. >> So that the people who turn right can get out of the through lane. Basically, >> it's so that folks traveling west on Williams. >> Yeah.
>> When they're driving past the school aren't in conflict with the lane that's turning left. Like that lane has to go around them. >> So you're not right at them. >> They're going to move in and traffic can go straight. >> I'm happy to pass this around. I know everybody can't see this, but
>> this will be helpful. This shows >> the left lane turning. This is the school. >> Okay. >> This is Williams. This is the new left turn lane. So everything pushed this way. >> I see. >> Make sure these folks can drive straight through and not rush into them.
>> Wait. So these people are going west and >> they're in. >> How are >> Yes, they're they're driving west here, but they need to >> I see. So this is the going westward lane and then this is the turn lane. Sorry. It's much smaller. I see. That's why it has to widen on this side. And
where's his driveway? >> Right there. These are the two trees. >> Is this it? >> I believe so. Yeah. >> Yeah, I think so. >> I didn't see where >> No, further down. >> What do you conclude from that?
>> No, not like a >> This is also not the right, but I'm just trying to give people a rough indication. I see. You could still do the work. >> Take off a whole >> I'm trying to Could you still do the work? >> Josh, do you want us to show this to them?
>> That's what I'm trying to >> figure out. Wanted to just know the driveway's right here. >> Yeah. >> And they're widening it so that this because of this left turn lane. So that's the spot. It's right at the
start. So, my whole thing is is that you don't have to take those two trees on the other side of my driveway. You don't have to take those down. the the the corner of my property.
Well, that's for us to settle with the town in terms of how much of their my property they're going to take. >> There is there is no taking for your property. >> Well, it's going to impact my property, >> but that's not >> corner that corner that they're going to be taking the
>> I don't want to get too farfield, but that's that's town property. >> Well, it is and it isn't if you look at it. >> No, it's not. So >> yeah, >> let's take in my view. >> Okay, but it's not a taking. So let's
talk about the trees. >> I I you know I am very sympathetic. Obviously we want that's why we're we could just put our foot down and say no, we're doing it. Those are those are the town trees. I understand that they benefit your property. Those are town
trees. We have not just said, "I'm sorry, we're going to do it. We're thinking about this. We're looking at it." Uh, I don't think we need to make a decision today. >> Um, and I would, now we have that, but I
think we need to I would like to >> think about this more. Um, so and hopefully not do it at 10 o'clock at night another time. >> No, I I wouldn't I wouldn't even ask that. I mean, but what I think you have
to from my standpoint from my standpoint, it it it's going to involve some unless we can work something out, it's going to involve some litigation with the town. And I don't know that and I know the town doesn't. >> So, you've already threatened that. Those are
>> those are not your trees. I understand you're upset. Those are the town those are town trees. >> I would be upset. You'd be upset. >> Sure, you would. >> I'm agreeing with you. I should be up. Sir, I'm agreeing with you. >> Yes. >> These are not your trees. They are town
trees. You if you want to sue I it does not help to sue. You're I'm sorry. It does not help to threaten to sue. >> I'm a lawyer. I I know what I'm talking about. >> I am also a lawyer. It >> we do not like to threaten to sue without grounds and I I don't think it's
helpful. But I am I am telling you that I I am willing to think about this more. talk with you about a way to make you either comfortable with this or see what our engineering is so we have a better grip on what's going on here. You
know, I I'm not I I as you are as I am, I I want to be reasonable, but you know, the two trees on the other side of my driveway, that's that's too much. >> I mean, I can argue about the corner of the property, you and I can argue about it. The two trees on either side of my
>> Okay. No, I I understand. I'm I'm telling you, I I'm okay. We don't need to do this tonight. I think that we can talk more. you can talk to us further, but I don't I don't see a reason if we don't need make a decision tonight on those two trees. I think we can table those at least.
>> I think I would for the board's benefit like to get you that plan in PDF because it does have the red circle around the trees that we're looking at probably a little better resolution for you. >> But you know that we're not meeting for a month. Is that an issue?
May 4th is the next meeting and it it is a slight issue if you decide to uphold um and and not allow the removal. It will require redesign of that entryway
which will have a drastic impact on the timing >> for those two trees or all six. >> Um >> we're only talking about two, right? Where can we >> help if we approve three? we approve the four and then leave the or does that still >> either the widening has to happen on that north side or the south side. It
can't be one and the other. >> Okay. >> Um so that's why it all >> got put together. >> We're all familiar with the hill on the south side. So that's not a great >> alternative >> and familiar with the the timing of the project and keeping it on t track. So,
Lynn, if we waited, if we did some homework between now till the 4th and we were probably able to talk with Leah too and ask her a few questions, would that be a would that be problematic or >> um only if we >> it? Yes, they are looking to have
everything wrapped up by April 15thish because there's some deadlines for um submitting design um development documents. Um, so if if you're considering continuing it, it would be great if you would consider a special meeting.
>> Oh, okay. >> We haven't had one of those in a while. >> No. >> The truth is, and I'm sorry to say this, that that road is already so close to that tree. You know, I I'm obviously was very
interested in finding some alternative, but when I saw the photo of the fact that it might only be three feet from the current road and we're widening it there, I can understand why it's many anyone
who's a professional feels that they will not survive or if they do survive that they'll be a liability where kids are walking to school and cars are driving to school. You know, bear in mind too, bear in mind too that that this whole issue of the middle school is
and this is is it brings up a lot of, you know, bad >> All right. So, we're going to we're going to cut this off. So, I I personally I I believe the trees are going to have to come down, but being sympathetic and I I understand your
passion for these trees and especially the the shade I agree is important. I I think that I would like to for you to talk to the engineering team and uh the tree warden and see if we can come to uh
to make you happier. Um I do think it's going to go down. It that may not happen, but that's my my goal and I and I would like to see get more information. So if we can wait if everyone's comfortable with that. It's
been a long night already. >> My >> We're continuing this to May 4th. You think you can get me out of here a little sooner than >> So, I've already covered this. I >> appreciate that. >> Okay. >> This is why >> Yeah.
>> My only feeling, my only concern is like I I think we have to have a special meeting. There's no way we should, you know, wait a month and potentially put the project in jeopardy. So, if we're not going to decide now, and I see that
there's reasons to consider taking a break, >> I I think that I would hate for the project to be in jeopardy in any way because we just felt like we wanted to wait a month. And I'm honest with you, I
just don't see how I mean, I would love to go see it in person, which I'm going to do as soon as possible, but just from looking at that photo, I just don't really see how um we're not going to agree with the assessment that we've
seen. I'm happy to have a special meeting. It's just it's just going to be time. >> Yeah. No, >> I don't think it's wise to wait a month. >> No, I agree with that. I I'm fine with having a special meeting next week. Uh maybe later in the week. It doesn't have to be long, but I would like there to be
some more conversation. Um you know, and if the board uh I'm just the chair. I don't run things. I don't I run the meetings but not the board. Uh if anyone wants to move otherwise, we can vote on it now. But uh on the the 458
um so but I I'm willing to have a brief public meeting next week after there's more conversation. I'm sorry. A brief special meeting. >> I'm good with a special meeting. >> I know you're going to be very busy next week. >> No, no, I think that sounds good. That
sounds reasonable. >> Okay. All right. Um, do we want to move on the 410 William Streets trees? >> Okay. >> Uh, entertain a motion to
uh, sorry, uphold the appeal. >> Um, to I think it's to approve >> renew removal. >> I would say to overturn the overturn. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, I'd entertain a motion to
overturn the tree warden's decision on 410 William Street. >> Uh, 14 and 22 inch white oaks. >> Second. >> Uh, >> or so. >> Thank you. >> Oh, sorry.
>> 410. >> 410. >> 410. >> Um, okay. Uh, anything further? Seeing nothing. All those in favor? And I'll entertain a motion to uh overturn the tree warden's decision on
410 William Streets 32 and 22 in white oaks. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Any further? Seeing nothing. All those in favor? Okay. And we'll table we're tableabling
yours. So if you'd like to wait, we can talk after. >> We're going to have a special meeting. Um okay. Moving on to uh the Arbor Day proclamation. Uh, Lynn, you want to introduce us?
>> Um, well, we do have the tree warden here who usually brings that forward to you. >> Go ahead. >> Still Leah in here. >> Leah. >> Hi. Yes. Um, so I just submitted to you guys the annual Arbor Day proclamation that we ask to sign every year. Um this
year Arbor Day lands on Friday, April 24th, we have our usual program of seedling handouts um and some additional programming going on with tree planting and tree defect ID at the adult center. So um with the Arbor Day proclamation in
the signing, it's a requirement for Tree City USA. Um I did get confirmation we got that for year 2025. So this would go in with our 2026 application >> because there's nothing attached. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um, >> do we have a
Sorry, >> Peggy can put the proclamation on the screen. >> Yes, please. We don't have the date attached. >> Yeah, they need the language. So you go to your email. No, we need the attachment. You have to go to your email because she
sent you >> as an attachment and you attach the email. >> Well, that doesn't sound good. >> I don't know. Um, March 23rd. Spilling her March 23rd.
>> Oh, that was the third one. There you go. 30 mil down. If you click the attachment See it? >> I can't read that. >> Looks good. >> You don't have to read the whole thing, but
>> I just I'm looking for the date. >> Is it the 24th? April the 24th >> or no? >> Yes. right here. >> 26 >> 20 >> April 24th, 2026 as Arbor Day.
>> Okay. I'll entertain a motion that we proclaim Friday, April 24th, 2026 as Arbor Day in Long Meadow. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any further? Seeing nothing. All those in favor? >> Who wants the honors?
>> I'll move to adjurnn. >> Second. All those in favor. >> Thank you everybody. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.